Sailing: We are sailing

Xylonite is a curiously named but pristine example of a 1920s Thames barge. It is complete with many of its original fixtures and fittings, right down to the old-style ropes, wood and polished brass. This perhaps explains why the first reaction of most of the young people coming on board last month was, "What's that funny smell?"

The mixture of oil and polish that was disturbing members of the two youth groups was as alien to them as the masts, sprits, bargeboards and stays that help to control the vessel. But it is this sense of being in an alien environment that The Cirdan Sailing Trust, which operates Xylonite and four other ships, believes is crucial to what the young people get out of the trip.

Leonie Turner, head of marketing at Cirdan, says: "Any residential experience is beneficial for young people because it gives them the opportunity to work as a team, but when they are put in the alien environment of a sailing vessel, and a very small space, everything is intensified. They have no choice but to work as a team, there is nowhere to go so they have to face up to the situation."

Problem-solving

Cirdan works with a range of youth organisations. This particular trip consists of two groups from Essex Youth Service, one from Colchester, one from Maldon, where Xylonite is moored. For the next four days, the boat will be home to seven young women and three young men aged 14 to 16.

Their first task is to get their supplies and bags on to the boat. This is achieved by forming a human chain across the two barges that are moored between Xylonite and the quay, and attempting not to drop anything crucial into the water, which is rapidly rising to cover the estuary mud.

Thames barges are flat-bottomed boats, which allows them to travel through relatively shallow stretches of water without hitting the bottom, but there are still only a few hours when the tide is high enough for Xylonite to leave its mooring on the River Blackwater. Before this can happen, all the equipment has to be stowed, and several safety briefings have to be gone through, a process that is made longer by the stream of questions on issues such as when and where it is OK to smoke.

Eventually, skipper Richard Titchener is happy that the group knows how to put on a life jacket, where not to stand on deck and how to flush the toilets, and the group sets sail. Titchener says that the amount groups want to learn about sailing varies, with some preferring to use the trip to concentrate on other activities. But this group is keen to get involved in the more hands-on aspects.

Jess, 15, is the first volunteer to get to climb the rigging, Gemma, 14, has ventured out onto the bowsprit, the narrow piece of wood projecting from the front of the vessel, and Nicky, 14, has had a nasty encounter with a "scadgy" mooring rope.

In light winds the ship makes leisurely progress down river, and the group takes it in turns to steer, learn how to move the sails when the ship changes direction, and make tea. The young people also carry out a series of man overboard drills, using a "buoy not a boy", which Titchener says is partly for practice and partly to show how difficult it is to pick a small person out of the water in a large sailing boat. A few hours later, with the wind rapidly disappearing, the ship drops anchor off a sandbank near the decommissioned Bradwell Power Station.

Life skills taught

Once the sails have been dropped, and the ropes coiled away, the evening activities are led by the youth group leaders. The first job is cooking, which Fran Andersen, the youth work co-ordinator for the Colchester group, says is an important activity. "A lot of them don't have home-cooked meals," she says. A quick survey reveals that only two of the 10 normally sit down for an evening meal.

The youth projects that come on Xylonite bring their own food, and this group has made an effort to provide more wholesome fare than the teenagers might usually get. Ryo Shitamichi, the youth worker from the Maldon group, says: "It is about trying to get them to do things they don't do at home."

After dinner, the youth workers run a fairly standard youth work session with the group. The day's events are discussed, some points are made about the importance of listening to other people, and the ground rules for the remainder of the trip are drawn up.

Quizzes and debates have been planned for the subsequent evenings. "Although some of them seem quite confident already, we are making the theme of the trip self-awareness and confidence-building," says Andersen. "What the young people mostly get out of it is learning to work as a team and social skills."

Once the activities are out of the way, the young people go to bed. The boys go to their room and the girls to theirs. It's then that the loud conversations strike up. Andersen is resigned to this kind of behaviour. "Sleep wasn't quite what it could have been, but that is what you expect on a residential," she says after the trip.

For the remainder of the voyage, which takes the group out to sea and up the coast as far as Walton Backwater before heading back to Maldon, the group is split into two sections that take it in turns to sail the barge, and to do the necessary cooking and cleaning.

Titchener says that from his point of view the trip went well. "They increased in confidence, had some fun and met some new people," he says.

"They nearly all said it was great making new friends."

Grant Everiss, the mate on Xylonite, also confirms the trip was a success.

"We all got back alive," he says. He does raise some concerns about the group's general behaviour and willingness to listen, saying they might have got more out of it if they had talked less, but says overall it went well.

Trips on Xylonite and Cirdan's other vessels cost from 53 a day per person, so youth group leaders need to feel that they are getting results that justify the investment. For Andersen, this is straightforward.

"It is excellent for small groups," she says. "It is one of the quickest ways of getting young people working together. They got a lot of new friends out of it, and a lot of confidence. 'Put me down for next year' was the most common comment when we got back."

FIND OUT MORE

The Cirdan Sailing Trust

www.cirdansailing.com

LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVES

The Tall Ships Youth Trust offers a different kind of sailing trip to The Cirdan Sailing Trust, but much of the thinking is the same. The benefits are to do with teamwork and personal development brought on by the necessity of helping other people in a strange environment.

Sailing a tall ship is challenging, and the vessels have no winches to make it easier to pull the ropes that raise and control the sails. A spokeswoman says this is a great leveller: "No-one knows how to sail tall ships. So you have a mixture of people that go through the same changes: feeling seasick, climbing the rigging, steering the ship."

The trust has two vessels, Stavros S Niarchos and Prince William. Both are 60m long, two-masted ships, and carry a full-time crew of six, 13 volunteer crew, and 48 young people, aged between 16 and 25. Trips generally last seven to 10 days. The boats are based around the UK in summer, and in warmer climes such as the Mediterranean or the Canaries during the winter.

Costs vary, but the typical price is between 600 and 800 per person for a 10-day voyage. Grants are available, and the trust is currently encouraging applications from Black and minority ethnic groups.

www.tallships.org

YOUNG PEOPLE'S VOICES

Hopefully, I might get a bit of a tan out of the trip if I'm lucky

Gemma, 14, Maldon

I never thought I'd get on with anyone, but they were a nice bunch of people. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere as well

Shane, 15, Wingate

It is really good. I would definitely come again next year. The only thing I didn't like was pulling on the rope that had been in the water

Nicky, 14, Maldon

My favourite bit was doing that thing on the bowsprit, although I did nearly get stuck

Vicky, 15, Colchester

It was much better than last time we came. Last time we didn't go anywhere

Matt, 15, Wivenhoe.