| LIFE ON BOARD |
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The Yacht.
The Challenge 67 foot yachts were all manufactured in the early 1990s for Chay Blyth’s “Challenge” ocean race events. When he replaced them with the slightly longer Challenge 72 foot yachts, the MOD procured four of the 67s to enable the Services to undertake Class 0 ocean passages. The yachts are steel hulled and classic Bermudan sloop rigged.
All winches are manually operated and it needs a minimum of five crewmembers to raise the mainsail. There are no automatic or self-steering systems on board so the helm must be constantly manned whatever the weather and sailed efficiently at all times, hence the need for a watch system 24/7.
The Crew.
Each yacht has a crew of 14 comprising; Skipper, Mate and with the remaining crew divided into either two or three “watches”, each of which has an experienced ‘Watch Leader’. The Skipper must hold a Yacht Master Ocean qualification, be fully trained in dealing with medical emergencies (MFAS/MCAS) and formally authorised by OIC JSASTC. The Mate must be at least a Yacht Master
Offshore and also hold the MFAS/MCAS qualification.
Watch Leaders must be a minimum of RYA Day Skipper qualified Of the remaining 9 crew (3 watch system) there will be a wide range complete novice to RYA Competent Crew and higher. For the purposes of this description we will concentrate on the 3 watch system.
Accommodation.
Only the Skipper and Mate get the luxury of a single cabin each. These are located in the stern and double up as extra storage space for victuals at the start of each voyage. The watch leaders share a three person cabin and have to accept that every 4 hours one of them will be preparing to go on watch, hopefully making as little noise as possible – this takes practice to achieve and is often accelerated by ‘peer pressure’.
The remaining 3 cabins are assigned to the respective watch “hands”. With the exception of the Skipper and Mate, everybody has a single bunk (three high in the two forward cabins) and an individual box of about 1 cubic metre for their personnel kit. Individuals’ foul weather clothing and boots are stored in the ‘wet locker’, but life jackets are kept in their cabins when not being worn. The Challenge 67 has a large saloon and galley aft of the companionway where meals are prepared and eaten and off duty crew can relax.
Forward of the cabins, there are two ‘heads’ port and starboard. Both are fitted out with a toilet flushed with sea water either directly overboard when out at sea or into a holding ‘black water’ tank when in harbours and designated areas of high environmental cleanliness standard. The wash basin has hot and cold water supplies and the mixer faucet doubles as a hand held shower. Personnel can only shower when the on-board water maker is serviceable and there are sufficient quantities of fresh water onboard. |
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| Blog Entry |
Example entry from " Exercise Golden Eagle"
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Exercise Golden Eagle
In order to mark the Army Air Corps Golden Jubilee celebrations, a number of outdoor pursuit activities have been put into place. The activities include mountaineering, ballooning in the Pyrenees and an offshore sailing exercise to sail 33,000 nautical miles around the world.
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6 Jan 07
What a way to start an exercise! New Year in Cape Town before preparing to sail for over 4000 miles to Austrailia.
One of the largest tasks of all was the victualling of the boat for 14 hungry mouths. This was a mammoth task, carried out under the keen eye of Ollie Stead who was able to direct and administer the train of shopping trolleys through the local supermarket. On completion of the compulsory administration procedures and last minute maintenance requirements, the yacht moored up at the fuel pontoon to stock up prior to the departure. 1600 litres of fuel later and the crew set off on an unparalleled adventure across and down into the Indian and Southern Oceans.
The first day and a half was spent travelling south to catch the more favourable winds. During this time, the crews began to develop their “sea legs” as they began to settle into the ships routine. For others, there was an opportunity to show the effects of sea-sickness due to being stuck in the galley for protracted periods of time – not to worry, everyone suffers at some time!!! A few seals have been spotted in the local area along with the odd whale. Yesterday, the crew caught a large 20lb fish which has been stored for later use. With plenty of other fresh rations on the boat, fishing has now taken a back seat until later in the trip.
As for the weather, the team have encountered a number of squalls and this, in turn, has lead to the wearing of the wet weather clothing as the yacht sails into the Southern Ocean and is met by the punishing winds and rolling seas. With 25 knot winds from the south west, the yacht is now sailing along quite comfortably with the No 2 Yankee head sail and a reef in the main sail. This however has only been obtained with a number of sail changes and a variety of reefs put into and shaken out of the main sail.
Crew morale is still very high (John Milton says hello to his mum!) and the boat is still bubbling with enthusiasm of the adventure ahead -
even though it is raining!!! |
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Challenge 67
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| JSASTC |
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JSASTC have provide the 3 Challenge 67 yachts.
“Our mission is to develop the personal qualities essential to members of the British Armed Forces through adventurous sail training in the Service environment.”
Go to JSASTC web site |
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