Adventure under sail: York Vikings Rotary joins the crew of the James Cook

Every year, York Vikings Rotary funds places for young people to go to sea with Ocean Youth Trust North. It is not the loudest thing our club does. It rarely makes the local paper. But when members are asked which of our projects they would defend hardest, this one comes up again and again.

July gave us the chance to find out why, first hand. Alongside members of Berwick Rotary, we joined the crew of the James Cook OYT North’s 22-metre sail training vessel — for a weekend voyage.

Not a boat trip

The James Cook is best known for its Adventure under Sail programme, which takes young people, many of whom have never seen the sea up close, and makes them crew. Not passengers. Crew. They stand watch, they helm, they handle sail, they cook, they clean, and they do it on a rota with people they met two days ago.

Adult and community groups sail on the same terms. There is no separate timetable for visiting Rotarians, and that is exactly the point. The weekend does not explain the programme; it puts you in it.

What the funding actually buys

It is easy to write “confidence, teamwork and new experiences” into a grant application. It is harder to picture what produces them.

What produces them is a situation where a young person is genuinely needed. On a boat, the job in front of you has to be done, it has to be done now, and nobody else is going to do it. There is no back row. That is a rare thing to offer a teenager, and it is very hard to replicate on dry land.

For some of the young people OYT North takes to sea, it is also the first time they have been trusted with responsibility that matters, or asked to rely on people they did not choose. Several come back. Some go on to crew.

A funded place removes the only barrier that stops most of them: cost.

Thank you

Our thanks to the crew of the James Cook for having us again, to Ocean Youth Trust North for the work they do all year, and to Berwick Rotary for good company on board. Two clubs, one watch rota a fair summary of how Rotary tends to work.