Sail Training

Sailing and the sea has always been in my blood. From a very young age I have been out on the water sailing on my family’s boat. This led to, what some would say, an unhealthy obsession with the sea, and when my parents had to sell their boat when I was 16 I needed to try and find a way to continue sailing. Fortunately a family friend told me about the Sail Training organisation Ocean Youth Trust South (www.oytsouth.org), and after a small amount of persuasion and a lot of car washing I signed up to do my first Sail Training voyage as part of the Tall Ships Races from Newcastle to Fredrikstad in 2005. This proved to be a bit of a baptism of fire into the Sail Training community, in what can only be described as one of the toughest Tall Ships Races of the past few years I saw first hand how 18 individuals can pull together and overcome the challenging environment put in front of us. This made me start to realise that getting involved in Sail Training was not just a way of continuing my sailing but also an opportunity to help others to develop through sailing.

Sail Training is not just limited to the waters of the UK, there are hundreds of Sail Training organisations all around the world giving young people the opportunity to go to sea. National Sail Training organisations, such as ASTO, all come under the umbrella of Sail Training International (STI) whose purpose is the development and education of young people around the world through sailing.