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Members being switched out by helicopter

CBC News 

Posted: Jun 28, 2013 9:14 AM AT 

Last Updated: Jun 28, 2013 11:22 AM AT

A Royal Navy minehunter is to be this year’s Dartmouth Royal Regatta guardship. 
The 52.5m-long HMS Blyth will be dropping anchor in the Dart as part of the week-long regatta fun of rowing, sailing and air displays. 
HMS Blyth is a Sandown class ship, with a crew of five officers and 27 ratings. 
She weighs in at 484 tonnes and was launched in 2000. 
She will take on the traditional role as guardship in a year when the Royal Navy is celebrating its 150th anniversary links with the Dart as a training ground for naval officers. 
Regatta chairman Jonathan Hawkins said: ‘It is a great honour that the Royal Navy has again supported Dartmouth and given us a guardship for regatta. We are looking forward to seeing her on the Dart and giving the crew a great Dartmouth welcome.’ 
Last year the Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans acted as the guardship for the August regatta event. 
The Royal Navy has been providing guardships for the regatta for decades, although at one point in the 1990s the event had to go ahead without a visiting warship and there were concerns that the Royal Navy would axe the tradition altogether. 
In the end, questions were raised in the House of Commons by the then MP, Anthony Steen, to ensure that Royal Navy regatta visits continued, said Mr Hawkins. 
HMS Blyth is based on the Clyde in Scotland. 
In May this year she sailed to London to participate in the Battle of the Atlantic 70th anniversary commemorations. 
She is he second Royal Navy warship to be called HMS Blyth. 
The first was a Bangor class minesweeper that saw service in the Second World War.