Sea-Fever Consulting LLC
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ASTA’s Tall Ships Youth Adventure Program was the result of a federal appropriation under the US Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and is categorized as a demonstration project. This funding was secured and program created when I was executive director of the American Sail Training Association. Enough of that, let’s get on to the good stuff. (more…)
This week’s Time magazine cover article, The Myth About Boys by David Von Drehl, should interest anyone involved in youth development, including parents of adolescent boys and girls. The below quote applies equally to both.
“When no one’s looming over them, they begin making choices of their own,” she says. “They discover consequences and learn to take responsibility for themselves and their emotions. They start learning self-discipline, self-confidence, team building. If we don’t let kids work through their own problems, we get a generation of whiners.”
That made sense to me. As I watched the boys at Falling Creek do things that would scare me to death if my own son were doing them–hammering white-hot pieces of metal, clinging to a zip line two stories above a lake, examining native rattlesnakes–I didn’t notice many whining boys.
That sounds a lot like what happens when you put a bunch of kids on a schooner for a sail training experience. Fun and adventure is a powerful elixir for developing character, self confidence, self esteem and self efficacy in youth. Give them “structured freedom” and introduce a little controlled risk and they will grow in amazing, unanticipated and immeasurable directions.
In this interesting article the Heath brothers cite Stanford’s Carol Dweck’s new book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and her research on how we think about intelligence and it’s impact on our performance. Dweck believes that there are two types of mind-sets: fixed and growth.
Tiger Woods is an athlete with a growth mind-set, someone who obsesses about his game and makes incremental improvements. Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox appears to have a fixed mind-set, relying on his enormous natural gifts to succeed (but not as keen on things like attending spring training). All of us blend the mind-sets in our heads. We might say, “I can’t draw.” But few of us would say, “I was born without the ability to ride a bike.”
Yesterday the tall ships paraded out of Halifax Harbor and Halifax Webcam got overwhelmed by traffic.
Thousands of people wanted to watch the Parade of Sail with our cameras yesterday but only a part of them was able to. Our server ran at 100% server load almost all the time until the evening.
The server logfile shows 5.5 million hits from about 100,000 different IP addresses just yesterday. We sent out more than 240 GB of data in one day. That’s the traffic of almost two normal weeks in less than 12 hours.
While they were unable to provide every web-viewer a live seat during the parade, they have created two time lapsed videos that offer an interesting and beautiful presentation of a working waterfront. Enjoy!
Here’s a trailer for Kid Nation, a new reality TV show.
TV Week website has an interesting article about how CBS was able to put this show together. If the large number of comments to TV Week’s post are any indication, this show is sure to draw lots of attention. Maybe if it was labeled a documentary instead of reality TV it would be less of a lightning rod for controversy. It has some interesting potential; however, I’m cautious because reality TV has a tendency to unnecessarily trivialize things and manufacture drama. I’ll reserve my opinion until after I learn more and actually watch a few episodes.
Maybe its because I am a product of a youth sail training program which I entered as an adolescent at the age of 13 and left as a mature young adult at 17, but I’m not at all upset by having children participate in Kid Nation. Regarding work, sailing on a tall ship required long hours and hard work and it remains to this day one of the most powerful and empowering experiences of my life. These kids were in a controlled environment which was probably safer than the one which many returned to after filming was over. Certainly it was safer than that which the vast majority of America’s youth live in today.
It’s dangerous to underestimate what kids are capable of accomplishing and even more dangerous to overprotect them from unique and valuable experiences that will benefit them for a lifetime.
Earlier this month the Canadian schooner Robertson II experienced a potentially career ending casualty and today it’s reported that a fire in the engine room aboard the sail training vessel Fair Jeanne caused her crew and trainees to be evacuated. There were several injuries reported including a broken leg and head injury, though owner Simon Fuller advises none appear to be serious.
Built in 1982, Fair Jeanne is a 110′ brigantine which has provided life changing educational and character building experiences for thousands of Canadian youth. She is own and operated by Bytown Brigantines, Inc.
I love this World Wlidlife Fund billboard raising the awareness of the global warming issue. It’s also a pretty clever and thought provoking use of old media (billboard) and new media (YouTube).
Seventy eight days ago, Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad set sail from NYC on the Schooner Anne for voyage of 1,000 days without touching land. I have to admit that I was originally a bit skeptical of this whole endeavor and especially so after they wandered into some naval war games and then survived a collision with a freighter; all in the first few weeks! This is all being chronicled in a blog called 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey. My skepticism is now gone and each day I marvel at their resourcefulness. They are also wonderful teachers and I am grateful for that they have undertaken this adventure and are sharing it with us. (Above image from tugster)
Tomorrow another group of adventurers set sail from NYC. The Abora 3 is a reed boat that is embarking on an expedition reminiscent of those of Thor Heyerdahl from 50 years ago. While Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki and Ra expeditions involved reed vessels traveling downwind and with following seas on intercontinental voyages, the Abora 3 will be sailing at angles to the wind in an attempt to cross the Atlantic from NYC to Spain.
Today’s (Monday, July 9th) Portsmouth Herald has a great article by Susan Nolan about the power of sail training.
Captain Liam Keating, the skipper of the tall ship Prince William, one of 4 tall ships that visited Portsmouth, NH this weekend, tells a great story about how a young man’s life was changed by a sail training experience several years ago. Nolan writes:
When Keating joined the Prince William five years ago, a young man from Dublin named Paul was on one of his first voyages. Paul had scars on his body from cigarette burns and from being bitten by his alcoholic father, Keating said. But the voyage on the Prince William changed the young man’s life. In fact, it changed the lives of Paul’s entire family.
The Christmas after his summer voyage, Paul sent Keating a card. (more…)
Today’s NY Times society page had a pretty amazing spread of photos of the Tall Ships event in Newport. Figures that that this would happen after I left as the American Sail Training Association executive director! Unfortunately, there wasn’t a mention of the ASTA who is the organization which created this phenomenon over 30 years ago right in Newport.
Cities host these types of events for just this reason. It reinforces Newport’s brand as a maritime heritage tourism destination and it provides great national media. And if you are a Vanderbilt or Whitney, it’s a great excuse to organize a family reunion!
This seems to be pretty unfortunate news for the amazing vessel and her unique education programs. The US Brig Niagara just received her SSV (sail school vessel) status and developed her 2007 schedule predominantly around sail training instead of port appearances. Education Day Sail Schedule and Sail Training Program Schedule
In August, Niagara, with Professor Timothy Walker and in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, is offering a 4 credit college course aboard the vessel entitled Maritime History and the Great Lakes.
Hope this budget impasse is soon resolved so that the US Brig Niagara can pursue her mission “to preserve the skills of square-rig seafaring, interpret War of 1812 history and to promote the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Erie.”
There is a new round of videos in Sea-Fever Cinema for July.
“Heavy Weather” is the theme and there is some incredible footage of Mother Nature having her way with large ships. In Heavy Sea watch closely for the flex in the hallways and imagine the wild rides in Straits Shipping, Voyager in Cyclone and Monster Wave. There’s also a clip from Deadliest Catch that you should think about next time you order crabs or seafood in a restaurant.
Grab some popcorn and enjoy being on terra firma as you watch this incredible footage.
Earlier this week the Robertson II, one of Canada’s historic tall ships, experienced a significant casualty when she grounded on Mink Reef off Winter Cove near Saturna Island. Unfortunately, the situation does not sound very good.
The Bosun’s Mate website has been closely monitoring developments with updates and photos. The Robertson II has a rich history as a working schooner followed by service as the first sail training vessel owned and operated by S.A.L.T.S. (Sail and Life Training Society), Victoria, BC, Canada.
According to an update (07/07/07) by The Bosun’s Mate the Robertson II is privately owned by Atlantic and Pacific Fisheries of Victoria but has been used by Merchant Marine Sail and Steam International Society which has a mission “to preserve the spirit of our merchant marine heritage forever under both sail and power.”
It’s always sad to see a vessel founder and more so with one that has given thousands of young people positive life changing experiences over the years. The power of vessels like Robbie lies in the experiences, memories and dreams that they leave with people who sail them as well as with those who simply witness the majesty of a tall ship from shore. Look for some powerful stories to be told as the situation develops.
It seems only fitting that sail training pioneer Irving Johnson was born on Independence Day 1905.
For information about this extraordinary sailor, adventurer, educator and leader check out his Wikipedia entry and his biography on the Irving and Electa Johnson Collection page on the Mystic Seaport website.
Although Alinghi retained the Cup with 5 wins to 2 losses this will go down as one of the most exciting sailing competitions ever. Team New Zealand incurred the only penalty in the series and was forced to sail a 360 degree turn at the finish line and ended up losing by 1 second!
With all of the nostalgia for the old days of America’s Cup races off the coast of Newport, RI, the 32nd series turned out to be one of the most exciting of all time. It could have easily stretched out to nine races and either team was capable of winning. There has been a lot of discussion about Alinghi being a faster boat but in the end, it came down to teamwork, strategy and execution.
Seventy eight days ago, 
Tomorrow another group of adventurers set sail from NYC. The 
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a mention of the ASTA who is the organization which created this phenomenon over 30 years ago right in Newport.
Although Alinghi retained the Cup with 5 wins to 2 losses this will go down as one of the most exciting sailing competitions ever. Team New Zealand incurred the only penalty in the series and was forced to sail a 360 degree turn at the finish line and ended up losing by 1 second!