Taking to the water puts wind in pupils’ sails

Bristol Pilot Cutters Week has returned to the island to provide nautical opportunities for primary schools, underprivileged

or disadvantaged children and youth groups.

The sailing initiatives are held across the UK, but the Guernsey edition has the largest youth participation.

Nicola Anne Beck, skipper and owner of pilot cutter Amelie Rose, has been visiting Guernsey with the initiative since 2010.

‘Hopefully the children get a lot of enjoyment out of it, you only have to hear the squeals to know that they’re really having fun,’ she said.

‘They get to see the things they wouldn’t normally see, such as the bunks below which they especially love.

‘They see all the yachts around in the harbour but the fact there’s a little house inside of it is beyond them sometimes.’

Students get lifejackets and a safety briefing, then learn how to get the fenders in, put the sail up and go up and down the Little Russel.

Bethany Bunn and Jasper De La Mare, both aged 11, said that they had never done anything like it before.

‘It was really fun, I got to steer for a bit and it was just a really good experience,’ said Jasper.

‘It was first class and amazing.'

Bethany said that getting out on the sea was something she would like to do more of in future.

The sessions are two hours each, and there are two student sailings a day, and a sailing for the sponsors in the evening.

Up to 10 children and two adults can be taken on each trip, and the initiative runs for two weeks.

‘It started in 2009 when Guernsey was running a sailing weekend and we had a two-masted schooner that came over and we took about 60 or 70 children out on it and everyone really enjoyed it and it has evolved from there,’ said Andreas Tautscher, chairman of the Set Sail Trust

‘We love doing it, it’s all volunteer-based and couldn’t do it without our sponsors and the support from the harbour authorities.

It is estimated that between 5,000 and 6,000 children have been given a sailing experience since the initiative started more than a decade ago.