Opening up horizons

 

AS ONE of six boys in a family that liked to be on the water, the Revd Graham Sykes was almost bound to be a sailor. At the age of four, he nagged his father to take him out in a converted canoe; by the age of seven, he could sail single-handed.

Now, after a rich variety of ministries that have included 20 years as a parish priest in rural Herefordshire, and several as a hospice chaplain, he is CEO of the Morning Star Trust (MST), a Christian charity that has been taking young people to sea for the past 45 years. Sailing is a bit like being an artist, he suggests: “When you’re involved in it, you don’t have much capacity for your brain to go elsewhere; so you just enjoy it.”

It’s not just the physical benefits of being outdoors, or the joy of seeing the “bright, shiny faces” that come back after a voyage. It is also, he says, the intellectual challenge of navigating, keeping a crew safe, and making sure that the crew members function well together.

For 40 years, the trust operated a 68-foot sailing boat, Morning Star Revelation, a Tall Ship constructed by volunteers over a five-year period. It had done its time by 2019, at which point the expense of running such a ship, and the losses sustained if it had to be out of service, rendered it uneconomical.

Instead, the trustees opted for a small fleet, which currently comprises three sail training vessels: Bright Star, a purpose-built training and expedition yacht, used primarily for youth-training voyages and Royal Yacht Association (RYA) training courses; and Eastern Star and Guiding Star, primarily used for expeditions, group voyages, and larger events. All have been refitted and upgraded over the past three years. The ambition is to add a fourth boat.

Participants come on board at 1800 hours on Friday, to be welcomed on board with the first meal together, taken on one boat. It is an evening of fellowship which includes talks on matters pertaining to trust; respect for people’s privacy; safety; and how to use the “heads” (lavatories). In the morning, they generally get up early, “do a bit of deck work so they know what they’re doing”, and then get out on the water. Within ten minutes, one of them will be steering the boat, Mr Sykes says.

“Our staff are trained to be as hands-off as is safe. So, we’ll put somebody on the steering of this 11-metre yacht, and have somebody sitting close to them who can intervene if necessary. From the very get-go, you’re teaching somebody how to steer a boat. Then, another bunch of us will be putting sails up, and, from then on, as far as possible, we get them to sail the boat under instructions.”

Feedback suggests that MST gets a high percentage of returners. “For many of the young people who spoke at our conference last year, it was a very important spiritual journey. For others, it was a time of great personal growth,” he concludes. “We’ve watched them grow in confidence and self-worth. We have seen them growing from children to adults.”

Morning Star Trust website:-  mst.org.uk