National Historic Ships UK’s Photography Competition is always hugely popular, with hundreds of entries each year from Britain and around the world.  It has been running since 2010, and always features a wide range of historic vessels and the people who engage with them.  

2024 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Painting Trafalgar, by Peter Collins (pictured, below)
Highly Commended: Old and New: Waverley at Canary Wharf, by Mark Dillen
People's Choice Award: True LMS Locomotive Colours, by Julie Fletcher 
Newcomer of the Year: A White World, by Amy Lawson
Classic Boat Award: A sinking feeling, by Chrissie Westgate
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Pudge, by Shaun Mills
On the right part of an upturned hull of a boat is visible. It has colourful horizontal stripes. A woman on the left of the image is holding a brush to the hull, painting the boat.
A birds eye view of the PS Waverley on the Thames after sundown, with the tall buildings of Canary Wharf in the background.
A canal boat and lush vegetation are in the foreground. Above them, a steam train passes on a railway bridge.
The image is bisected, with open water on the lower half and snowy mountains, ice, and sky in the upper half. A two-masted schooner with a red hull sits in the left foreground part of the image, none of her sails are set.
The sky melds with the grey water. They cover almost the whole image. In the centre, a starboard bow view of smack CK363 as she approaches a wreck with two masts sticking out of the water. In the background two more smacks can be seen, on their starboard sides.
Orange hues dominate the image, most of it is covered by sky and water. In the centre left a bowsprit barge is anchored, with two more barges in the background to the left. The titular Pudge is the furthest away one from the viewer.

2023 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Sallie and the Wolf Moon, by Sandy Miller (pictured below)
Highly Commended: Bargus and Betelgeuse heading along the Trent & Mersey Canal in a low Winter sun, by Kev Maslin
People's Choice Award: Crew Embarking the MV Glenachulish, by Ian Southerin
Newcomer of the Year: VIC 32, by Wayne Starkey
Classic Boat Award: Looking Down, by Jeff Welch
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Masts in the mist, by James Crisp
Pink and purple hue photo showing mostly water and sky, with smack CK224 in port beam view sitting on the mud. Bright full moon is in the upper left corner, and there is a small murmuration of starlings in the centre left of the image.
Two canal boats are sailing one behind the other on a crisp autumnal looking morning, with dark trees towering behind them and reflected in the water.
The MV Glenachullish sits in the low centre of the image. A smal white boat with an outboard engine and two people dressed in black approaches the MV from the bottom left corner. The water is dark and there are black towering peaks in the background with a stripe of fog traversing across them.
VIC 32 is shown in the centre foreground from port stern, approaching shore where multiple small yachts are moored. There are houses and dark trees beyond the water, and in the far distance mountain peaks can be seen.
A bird's eye view on SB Cambria with all her sails set, set against the backgruond of green muddy water
Orange hues cover the whole image. Bottom half of the vista is covered in fog, with three dark masts with stowed sails emerging from the fog in the centre of the photo.

2022 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: MGB 81 by Mark Sutherland (pictured below)
Highly Commended: PS Waverley, Last Journey of the Season by Graeme Phanco
People's Choice Award: Off to Sea by Nick Harborne
Newcomer of the Year: Journey to the Big Refit by Neil Holmes
Classic Boat Award: Schooner Girl by Lucy Tulloch
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Drifting with Friends by Shane Granger
Black and white image of MGB81 from the stern going at considerable speed, the water behind her foaming and splashing
A nighttime shot of PS Waverley, shown from the port stern view, her deck lit up. A tall port crane lit up in light blue, pink, and red is in the background
A stern view of Pelican of London with no sails set, going down a river. To the left there is a tall line of trees, to the right a line of old grey slate houses and wooden piers.
Trawle Arctic Corsair is shown in the centre of the image from her starboard side. She's accompanied by two tugs, Nobleman at the bow and Yeoman at the stern. The yellow hues of the golden hour cast the three ships aglow. Port cranes are standing in the background on the left.
A woman wearing tan shorts and a red t-shirt is standing in the centre of the image in front of a set of ratlines and holding onto a rope. A bright blue wave is pouring onto the deck from behind her and covering her feet in white foam. Ropes and a wooden hatch are in the foreground of the image.
A bird's eye view of the bow and bowsprit of a ship. Dolphins are swimming in the dark blue water around the ship.

2021 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Thames Sailing Barges by Fraser Gray (pictured below)
People's Choice Award: The Boat at Thornham by Gary Holford
Newcomer of the Year (Joint Award): Ebb and Flow by Raymond Carruthers & The RRS Discovery, Orion and the V&A by Kuljit Athwal
Highly Commended: Danny on the Weaver by John Eyres
Classic Boat Award: Ethel Alice & Besom Fleet. Moment of Beauty by Sandy Miller
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: On the deck of the Blue Peter by Ed Whiting
The whole image is mostly yellow, with three Thames barges moored up together on the right and a fourth one approaching under full sail in the background on the left
A decrepit small boat with a single mast is lying on its side in the centre of the image on a patch of green grass by a footpath. Behind it on the left stands a wooden barn. The sky above is blue and speckled with white fluffy clouds.
Two small boats with white hulls and duck blue fittings are standing still on a clear and flat water surface. Their hulls are perfectly reflected in the water.
RRS Discovery is shown from the port bow at night, her barren masts lit up from the colourful lighs on her deck. Part of the dry dock, as wel as the V&A building behind the ship, are visible.

2020 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Riverside Museum, Glasgow and Tall Ship Glenlee by Daniel Jones (pictured below)
People's Choice Award: The Channel Rose outside Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage on Dungeness Beach by David Stearne
Classic Boat Award: Peace CK171 by Colm O'Laoi
Highly Commended: The Sallie and Cambria, May Dawn by Sandy Miller
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Norfolk Dinghies by Sandy Miller
A starboard view of Tall Ship Glenlee. The water and sky are tinted a pinkish purple colour, and the windows in the grey building behind the ship are lit up neon green. The water shows a clear reflection of the ship and the building behind it.
A black and white photo of a decrepit wooden hull sitting on a shingle beach in front of a small wooden cottage.
A bird's eye view of CK171 under ful sail against the backdrop of teal coloured water. The ship is in the lower left of the image. The upper right shows a circular edge of land, with multiple people gathered on the beach to observe the ship.

2019 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Ena: Heroine of Dunkirk by David Stearne
People's Choice Award: Trinity's Little Helper by Stacey Belbin
Classic Boat Award: Priscilla CK437 at Rowhedge Regatta 2019 by Sandy Miller 
Photo of the Decade*: 50 Degrees South by Yasmin Steel
Highly Commended: SS Great Britain by Peter Pangbourne
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Under sail by George Fisk

*A special award to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the National Historic Ships UK Photo Competition.  The winner was chosen by public vote from all ten previous winning images.
Black and white image showing the stern of the wreck of sailing barge Ena sitting on the mud at low water.
A black dog is sitting on the grass by a mooring chain of a lightship moored in the background.
A port stern view of CK437 under full sail on a clear blue sky day. In the background on the right another smack under full sail is shown.
A view from over the gunwale of a tall ship looking along the ship's deck. The vessel is heeling to the left of the image at a steep angle, with deep blue waves foaming alongside it. The horizon ine in the distance is even, and the sky above light blue with some white clouds in the distance.

 

2018 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Graceful Lines by Russell Anley (pictured below)
Highly Commended: Radio Caroline Dramatics by Stacey Belbin
People's Choice Award: Radio Caroline Dramatics by Stacey Belbin
Classic Boat Award: Edge to edge by Philippe Saudreau
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Barges on the Blackwater by Colm O’Laoi

Graceful Lines by Russell Anley

2017 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Butty boat Ilford breaks the September Dawn by Teresa Fuller (pictured below)
Highly Commended: Rattray Head at Sunset by Linzi Higgins
Classic Boat Award: Haul Together by Sophie Hunt
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Bark Europa in Fort Point, Antarctica by Joram Hoevenaars

Butty Boat Ilford by Teresa Fuller

2016 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: 50 Degrees South by Yasmin Steel (pictured below)
Highly Commended: CK 78 Mary by Shaun Mills
Classic Boat Award: 50 Degrees South by Yasmin Steel
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: CK 78 Mary by Shaun Mills

50 degrees south by Yasmin Steele

2015 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Reaper passing The Blocks at St Monans by Alaistair Ramsay (pictured below)
Classic Boat Award: Reaper passing The Blocks at St Monans by Alaistair Ramsay
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Oriole, Herreshoff NY 30, during Les Régates Royales 2014 by Jean Francois Canavaggia
Young Photographer of the Year: HMS President (close up) by Victor Ghose

Reaper by Alaistair Ramsay

2014 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: To the jib sheet by Philippe Saudreau (pictured below)
Classic Boat Award: Over the gunnels by Chrissie Westgate
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Reflecting on summer past in the Pyefleet by Diane Warner
Young Photographer of the Year: Shavings by Callum Leverett

To the jib sheet by Philippe Saudreau

2013 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: The Joys of Sailing by Ian Kippax (pictured below)
Classic Boat Award: Early Morning - Llangollen Canal by Alan Kempster
Classic Boat Award Highly Commended: Stranded by Ruediger Zitt
Young Photographer of the Year: Beyond the Bristol Channel by Edward French

The joys of sailing by Ian Kippax

2012 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Scorpio by Ian Kippax (pictured, below)
Classic Boat Award: Scorpio by Ian Kippax

Scorpio by Ian Kippax

2011 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Maybird by Mike Garlick (pictured below)
Classic Boat Award: Glasgow Tall Ship Glenlee towed down the Clyde by Tom Finnie

Maybird by Mike Garlick

2010 Photo Competition

Overall Winner: Calder & Hebble Keel Pauline, Misty Morning by Gabrielle Lorenz (pictured below)
Classic Boat Award: Lifestyle by Andre Boto

Pauline by Gabrielle Lorenz