Grant Reports

This was a mixed voyage for individual bookings, most of whom paid for their own places: but we gave some funding to D, a girl aged 16 who had sailed with us when she was younger and had been identified as an exceptionally impressive young crew member with outstanding potential as a future volunteer. Now she is 16 she was awarded funding to help her start training as a volunteer bosun – the youngest person to start this training in 2023.

Voyage report

A mixed group of individual bookings joined us on Wednesday last week, and after a chat about options, they were keen to set off on that first evening to cross the Channel. No sooner had that decision been made than fog started to roll into the bay! The plan was delayed until the following morning.

They had an early-morning start, slipping from Brixham at 6am in very little wind. But the fog had gone and the weather was glorious as they settled into watches and had music on deck, arriving in Guernsey and tying up alongside at 7pm, in time for dinner and then some games before bed.

On Friday they went ashore in the dinghy, first for showers and later for time ashore. In the afternoon they got under way again, and had a man overboard recovery drill before arriving and anchoring in Alderney and having a late dinner.

Saturday saw shore leave and then a chance to work toward their RYA sailing qualifications. Bosun Harry ran the weather section and an experienced sailor from among the crew taught the others about points of sail.

In the early evening they put the sails up and headed out into the Channel again, and proceeded to do some great tacking in challenging conditions before they got to the traffic separation scheme, and then moved onto a close reach and then a beam reach all the way overnight to Dartmouth. 

They arrived at 4pm on Sunday and had lunch and then time to rest before moving onto another berth.

Monday morning began with another change of berth, with some shore leave after breakfast. Once back on board, the sea staff took a step back and put the young people in charge of the passage back to Brixham. L (15) and P (17) ran the navigation out of Dartmouth; M (18) was acting skipper; T (15) first mate, and G (14) and C (15) were sailing officers. (D wasn’t given a new role for this exercise as she was already sailing as trainee bosun). With the support of all the others, they had a great sail to Fishcombe Cove for a swim. 

That was followed by anchor up, a fire drill, and the final move to Brixham for dinner, games and bed. The voyage ended the next morning after 221 nautical miles and you can see the full voyage track here.

Individual reports from the skipper

D aged 16: More than justified last year’s recommendation for sea staff training, given when she was only 15. She’s ready to sail in a staff berth on her next voyage and she could be brilliant. Great attitude without being too big a personality or too quiet. Suffered from sea sickness but recovered so quickly it barely stopped her… Particularly impressed the skipper by helping to launch the dinghy in miserable conditions when almost everyone else wanted to be in shelter – and completed the whole thing with a smile.

Certificates
All the young people earned RYA Start Yachting certificates. 

We always like to stress that an RYA certificate is a proper recognised qualification which shows that they mastered some basic sailing skills; but more importantly, earning the certificate also provides evidence of transferrable skills. To complete it, they had to be able to listen, concentrate, work in a team, practise things until they were able to get them right – even if they initially struggled, take part in routine tasks such as cooking and cleaning as well as the more exciting jobs, cope with living in an entirely unfamiliar situation, cope with being away from home, undertake tasks which some will have found really challenging, take responsibility when asked, follow safety instructions, and much more. They should be proud of themselves for doing so well. 

Outcomes Wheel self-evaluation

We use an exercise called Outcomes Wheels, developed with Children in Need and the Prince’s Trust, to measure how crew members feel about themselves at the start of a voyage and again at the end, giving themselves marks out of 6 in different areas. 

		D
1) Feeling confident	Before	4
	After	6
	Change	2
2) Working in a team	Before	5
	After	5
	Change	0
3) Learning new skills	Before	5
	After	6
	Change	1
4) Coping with new experiences	Before	4
	After	6
	Change	2
5) Getting on with people	Before	5
	After	6
	Change	1
6) Dealing with setbacks	Before	5
	After	5
	Change	0
7) Compromise & negotiation when living with different people	Before	4
	After	6
	Change	2
8) Learning from experience	Before	4
	After	5
	Change	1
9) Looking after myself	Before	5
	After	6
	Change	1
10) Communication (speaking and listening)	Before	4
	After	6
	Change	2
	Start total	45
	End total	57
	Change	12

Crew members are asked as part of the end-voyage evaluation if they have any specific examples that illustrate areas where they feel things changed for them over the course of the voyage.

Crew members are asked as part of the end-voyage evaluation if they have any specific examples that illustrate areas where they feel things changed for them over the course of the voyage.

 

Name	Feeling confident	Working in a team	Learning new skills	Coping with new experiences	Getting on with people	Dealing with setbacks	Learning from experience	Looking after myself
D	When I was helming and just in general	The whole group got on so well and at the end, worked together to sail the last few hours.	Doing trainee bosun. I learnt so much, like daily engine checks and so much about how the boat works.	I’m now more confident that I can deal with set backs e.g. seasickness	Jumping off the boat all together to swim	Carried on in the watch after being seasick.	Learnt about how the boat works.	I slept when not on watch so I was ready for when I was.

Best bit, worst bit

Recorded during end-voyage debrief and transcribed later. 

 

Name	Best bit	Worst bit	Most lasting memory
D	My best bit was definitely swimming off the boat and the sun coming down, it was just really nice.	My least favourite bit was definitely being seasick.	And my most memorable bit is probably also the swimming.

Comments book

Name	Age	Comment
D	16	It was an incredible week with great people. It’s so amazing how every time everyone gets along so well. I’ve learnt so much.