Callington Tall Ship Challenge

Students from Callington Community College and Tavistock College joined the crew of a 120 year old sailing ship for six days...

During half term a group of five students from Callington Community College joined five students from Tavistock College to crew a 120 year old sailing ship for six days.

The groups boarded ‘Leader' at Gosport Marina, and after familiarising themselves with the ship and a detailed safety briefing from the Skipper the hard work soon began.  Trinity Sailing Trust who own the ship supply a minimal crew so the emphasis is on teaching the students to work as a team and begin to learn everything involved in sailing a tall ship.

In a very short time the sails were hoisted and after a brief visit to Cowes on the Isle of Wight they set off for the Channel Islands.  This involved an overnight crossing which required the students to be split into two watches, three hours on watch and three hours off throughout the night, arriving in Alderney at 7:00am on Monday.  Bad weather was forecast so after a twelve hour stay the ship was forced to return to Dartmouth.  This involved a second night crossing arriving in Dartmouth at 7:00am on Tuesday with an exhausted crew.

The remainder of the week was spent coastal sailing from Dartmouth with the students studying and practicing for their RYA Start Yachting Certificate which everyone achieved by the end of the week.  The final night was spent anchored in Torbay before returning to Leader's home port of Brixham. After lots of tears, hugs and photographs the students reluctantly said goodbye to the ship and the crew and returned to Callington on Friday afternoon.

The crew from Callington were Kirsty Pook, Matt Pollard, Terry Northey, Liam Maton and Troy Rouse accompanied by Mr Hubbard.