Price
£940
Nights
Seven
Age range
16-25
Start port
Portsmouth
End port
Portsmouth
Passport
Yes
DofE
Yes
RYA
Watch Leader
Voyage code
CF727
Bursary
Available
Voyage highlights
Are you keen to develop your leadership skills and learn more about your strengths and opportunities for growth?
This challenging voyage to the Channel Islands and back is ideal for experienced sailors looking to perfect their skills on board one of our world-famous 72ft Challenger yachts.
For this ‘Voyage of Leadership’, you must have previously sailed on one of TSYT’s Voyages of Empowerment or have an equivalent level of experience in an alternative outdoor learning setting.
Our Leadership Voyages offer an intense, challenging and immersive voyage experience and will involve learning to navigate, passage plan and lead a watch in addition to experiencing potentially challenging offshore and overnight sailing.
For this reason, Leadership Voyages may not be suitable for young people who have not completed the previous two stages of our three-voyage programme or the RYA Competent Crew course.
This voyage provides a great opportunity to challenge yourself, while building the skills you need to achieve your life goals, and above all, learning what it means to be a leader in your community.
Sailing alongside other young people on a similar journey, you’ll develop the skills you need to work towards careers in the maritime sector and the blue economy.
As well as deepening your understanding of ocean science and sustainability, you can also learn from the knowledge and expertise of your highly qualified TSYT Crew mentors, who come from a wide range of backgrounds and have varying levels of experience.
If you already hold a RYA Competent Crew certificate, you will be able to start working towards completing the RYA Watch Leader course, and get an introduction to navigation and passage planning skills at RYA Day Skipper theory level.
The beginning or end of your voyage may include stopovers on the Isle of Wight in Cowes or Yarmouth, and along the south coast such as Poole or Weymouth.
Depending on the weather conditions, we may sail to Alderney, Sark or Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
Bring something to record your ideas and reflections in (this can be a digital device) and be prepared to get involved in co-creating an ocean-based sustainability project to build your awareness and skills around taking action to protect our ocean environment.
Pack your camera as you may also be lucky enough to spot dolphins, seals and fin whales along the way.
Navigation and passage planning. Team leadership. Challenging sailing. Training and mentoring. Taking ownership and responsibility.
Throughout the week, you’ll cover essential safety drills before you take charge of the yacht to plan, prepare, execute and review each aspect of the voyage.
You will take turns to lead the team in all aspects of sailing the yacht, from deck work to provisioning, cooking, cleaning and day-to-day maintenance.
This voyage is a great opportunity to make tangible progress towards achieving your goals, with time to reflect on your achievements, opportunities to learn about yourself as a leader and team player, and to develop the optimism, aspiration and expertise you need to influence your community as well as your own future.
Each crew member will receive a personal assessment covering their leadership, teamwork and communication skills — a great addition to your CV.
The Skipper will determine the final route depending on weather and other variables.
Our Leadership Voyages have clear learning objectives and outcomes and can qualify for an authorised absence from school/college. Please get in touch for more details on how we can support your application.
Following your Voyage of Leadership with us, you may be recommended by the Skipper to join our Watch Leader, Peer Mentor or Young Ambassador training programmes to continue your journey with TSYT by supporting our work.
All meals on board are included.
The RYA Watch Leader syllabus is an ongoing training syllabus written for Sail Training vessels, which you can work through over a series of voyages. Once the syllabus has been completed, TSYT can award the certificate.
The syllabus covers:
- Watchkeeping
- Seamanship
- Navigation
- Safety at sea
All up to the standard required for taking charge of a watch at sea or in harbour. It is at an equivalent level to RYA Day Skipper, minus the boat handling section.
RYA logbooks are available for purchase on board at a cost of £6 (Skippers are only able to take cash for this).
All our voyages of four nights or more qualify for residential section of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award.
Please let our Reservations Team know before sailing if you’d like to use the voyage for this.
You’ll be asked to enter your passport details as part of the booking process. If you don’t have these to hand, please contact us as soon as possible after submitting your booking form to let us know your details, as we cannot accept your booking without this information.
You will also need to present your valid passport to the Skipper at the start of the voyage.

