Challenger 1 – Volunteer Crew Training – CF709
Some of our amazing volunteers joined together for a training weekend to learn more about Tall Ships Youth Trust and brush up on their skills at sea. Read below to find out what they got up to.
Day 1
Saturday 9 March
Greetings from Challenger 1’s trainee watch leaders!
We started our weekend with a visit from Anna from the Portsmouth Hub, learning the Tall Ship Youth Trust’s values and a lively crew game of spoons, with laughter all round – a great first night!
We started our first day on the water with some model safety briefs from our wonderful Tall Ships crew, to help us gauge how to do them when we are watch leaders. Once we had set off, we went straight into some downwind sailing to practise rigging the gybe preventers.
Up next, we went to practise reefing our main sail – before realising that the sheave on the reef had broken – a challenge we rose to together as we dropped a second reef and sorted the sail out.
After we had sorted the sail out and had a tasty lunch of chicken salad wraps, we did a MOB drill, walking through the steps of the procedure and successfully pulling our danbuoy back on board.
We rounded our sailing day off with some impressive heeling, before arriving in Cowes Harbour and putting the boat to bed.
Day 2
Sunday 10 March
We started our day off with bacon butties, before starting the deck prep to motor back to Gunwarf.
On the way back, we had some time to ask the crew any queries we had about being a watch leader, and we also got a full tour of the boat systems – including how to do a log with the shiny new tech!
Once we arrived in Gunwarf, under a beautiful sunny sky, we began the process of putting the boat to bed and cleaning it for the next crew.
Once we were all tidied up, we had some chats about our next steps in volunteering on future voyages and safeguarding.
All in all, a very fun and laughter-filled weekend!
