Generally, students who enter the program have never been in a boat and often don’t know how to swim.  Over the course of four years they learn not just to swim and to sail, but to teach sailing to others, while working toward receiving an internationally recognised sailing instructor certification.

Modern safety technology is brilliant, and training programs are essential, but neither are really effective without time on the water in real life circumstance, experiencing what works, and what doesn’t. Rules that limit this are dangerous.

We take a breath, set the sail, and before we know it, we’ve capsized to port and our whole crew is in the water. We count off to make sure everyone is present.

The intersection between the worlds of Tall Ship sail training and our young new Australians, is where the real change seems to happen.

The Wooden Boat Shop is an Accredited Training Facility for apprentices in Marine Trades and over the years has trained around 50 shipwrights.