She is primarily designed to provide young people with the opportunity to undertake voyages as character-building exercises, rather than pure sail-training. She is also used for adult voyages and holidays, which help subsidise the operation of the ship.
In the late 1990s the two
schooners (
Malcolm Miller and
Sir Winston Churchill) then owned by the Tall Ships Youth Trust (then called the
Sail Training Association (STA)) were showing their age and becoming increasingly expensive to maintain. These two schooners are currently[
when?] used as super yachts. The hulls for the two new brigs (
Stavros S Niarchos and her sister ship,
Prince William) were obtained half-completed from another project in
Germany. These were transported to
Appledore Ship Yards in
Devon, where they were modified to the TSYT's requirements, and fitted out. She was completed in January 2000. The rig was designed by Michael Willoughby.