Cutters Week ‘an invaluable experience for schoolchildren’
Primary school pupils have been taking to the water as part of the Set Sail Trust’s Pilot Cutters Week.
The two-week event – which began on Monday – has seen Year 6 children from a range of different States schools sail up and down the Little Russel on board two Bristol pilot cutter boats, Polly Agatha and Merlin, and a Brixham trawler yacht called Golden Vanity.
Skipper Nicola Beck is based in the UK and has been involved with the Set Sail Trust since 2010. She said that the popularity of the week had grown over the years, so much so that the event now lasted for two weeks and included three boats rather than two.
‘The boats have come over from Portsmouth, Plymouth and Southampton,’ she said.
‘Once the children are on board it’s an opportunity for them to learn by experience, we get them putting up the sails, exploring the bunks down below, and even sticking them on the helm and getting them to figure out how to steer the boat.’
Ten children are able to be on the boats at once, along with two supervising adults and some crew members.
Ms Beck said the experience for the pupils of being out on the water was invaluable for their personal development. ‘They’re nervous before they get on the boats but by the time they get back they’re full of confidence and jumping off.
‘It’s like giving them a window into a world that they didn’t know existed. They’re amazed we do this as a job.’
It was Vauvert’s turn to set sail yesterday afternoon.
Pupil Seth Kenyon, 11, who was on board Polly Agatha, said he had really enjoyed being able to steer her, as well as taking part in a water fight with his fellow classmates on board the other boats.
‘We got absolutely drenched but dried off quite quickly in the sun,’ he said.
Isaac Shell, 11, said he had liked going below deck and seeing how big the boat’s inside space was, while Tia Etesse, 11, had enjoyed the team-building exercises the group did.
‘We had to work together to put the boat’s sails up and down,’ she said.
‘It’s the first time we’ve done something like that as most of us haven’t been on a boat like this before, but it was fun.’
Vale and La Mare schools have also been sailing this week, while Amherst, Forest, Le Rondin, St Mary & St Michael’s, St Martin’s, Castel and La Houguette pupils are set to have a go in the coming days.
