Young lives transformed by a masterclass on the ocean wave
Award-winning Tall Ship Challenge Wales is playing a huge role in developing life skills, teamwork, and self-confidence in youngsters with day-trips and residentials. Will Loram is at the helm
THERE is an unofficial ambassador for Wales sailing around the Baltic at the moment in the 2017 Tall Ships Races. It is an ambassador in name – Challenge Wales/Her Cymru – but it is also an ambassador for what can be done with the powerful, but under-researched ability of the social cohesion needed to make a Tall Ship work, that in turn gives those crewing a confidence and wellbeing that will stand them in good stead for when they step ashore again.
And to show how good they are at delivering this, Challenge Wales was awarded the UK Sail Training Vessel of the Year by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Association of Sail Training Organisations (ASTO) earlier this year.
When you think Tall Ship, you do not necessarily think of a 72ft steel bruiser commissioned by Sir Chay Blythe for his Global Challenge round the world the wrong way races, billed as The World’s Toughest Yacht Race. But Challenge Wales and others of her ilk slip into the Class D category of modern rigged boats under 40 metres LOA, and have the opportunity to join in with the more traditional ships in the whole jamboree of races, cruises, and parades that is the Tall Ships Races experience.
Built for the 2000/1 Global Challenge, the big bruiser built to withstand everything the oceans can throw at it has a home port of Penarth Marina, near Cardiff, when it is not performing its task of transforming young lives at sea.
Before they set out for Sweden and the Tall Ships, I had an opportunity to get a feel for the sailing experience on a Challenge Experience Day.
The charity’s business development manager, Vicky Jones, explains that these perform two functions: allow the charity workers who will use Challenge Wales for their charges to build confidence and help transform lives to see how the boat will achieve this; and secondly, to give those people in the Bristol Channel area, who may have seen her from afar, an opportunity to sail on a big yacht. And any potential volunteers, currently aged 18-75, need to show their commitment, and book an initial experience before they will be considered to get involved properly.
On a windless Sunday morning we assemble outside the Penarth Marina office, hoping that the planned sail around the Flatholm and Steepholm islands in Cardiff Roads does not turn into motor in the Bristol Channel instead.
There are eager sailors, and the baffled charity workers, who receive their briefing on the day’s plan before trudging down the pontoon to the ship and heaving themselves over the lifelines for a one-day adventure. Safety first, and life jackets are donned and drills gone through. And then slip from the marina, and through the Cardiff Barrage and out to sail the waters that were once crowded with coal ships waiting to load or discharge at Cardiff docks – once the busiest coal ports in the world.
A fine mist hides the islands, until a breeze begins to build, and the crew start to get the hands-on experience that they have come for. The foresails and main rise into the skies, and hull starts to bite into the waters, and Challenge Wales ever so slightly digs her side into a heel and we start to enjoy the peace and serenity that sailing can bring.
Skipper Andy Hall starts inviting the crew to take the helm. Great beaming smiles grace the faces of people who have never been on board a yacht before as they learn to steer, while the dinghy sailors and small boat dabblers revel in taking their skills to a higher level.
These are Andy’s home waters, having been apprenticed to the Cardiff & Bristol Channel Steam Pilot Boat Co Ltd aged 16. As opportunities for a pilot got squeezed his career took another direction into the offshore industry – with a break racing Dame Naomi James’ Colt Cars-sponsored multihulls – before becoming involved in a dying charity in possession of a Global Challenge yacht in 2009. And together with Vicky, they have built a strong and sturdy organisation to match the yacht, that has had to punch a successful passage to reliable funding sources, and recognition.
“The purpose of the charity is to develop the life skills of youngsters, with teamwork, respect and selfesteem,” Andy says.
And the proof is in the pudding, with one of their most notable successes being Luke, an 18-year-old from Merthyr, who was an insular, angry youth, who spent most of his time in his bedroom and had not spoken a word to anyone for two years. He had problems and no prospects, but a five-day trip on Challenge Wales managed to turn him around, and he spoke for the first time, got involved in the sailing and cooking, and achieved a dramatic difference that shocked his social worker.
Ten years ago Sail Training International commissioned Edinburgh University to investigate the benefits of sail training.
One of its key findings was: “The most effective sail training experience in developing social confidence and teamwork skills is delivered by vessel operators who offer well-structured educational programmes... the more emphasis there is on defined and purposeful activity relating to these goals, the more successful the programme is in those terms.”
Challenge Wales achieves this, through the hard work and dedication of the staff and volunteers, through the auspices of a great big gentle steel bruiser.
To find out more about Challenge Wales and follow its progress in the Tall Ships Races visit the website www.challengewales.org