Trainees get real-life emergency experience

by Amanda Dale, Royal Gazette/Sail-World on 11 Aug 2009 There's nothing like the real thing to get the adrenline flowing. Trainees taking part in a 30-hour training program on the sailing sloop Spirit of Bermuda got more than they bargained for when they were called upon to respond to a Mayday and carry out a rescue this week.

The Bermudan trainees, three staff from the Mirrors programme and 11 public middle school teachers , were called upon to put their new-found skills to use in a real life emergency.

William Caulder, from Dellwood Middle School was the first to spot the boat bobbing upside down after they had responded to the call. One man was in the water and the other clung to the side of upturned hull.

'I scanned the horizon and saw the boat bobbing upside down. The captain whipped us around and got us there very quickly,' said Caulder.

'Realising we were suddenly going to be part of a rescue mission, it was a rush. And all the crew did a wonderful job.'

The men on the stricken vessel were volunteers on a crash boat for the Bermuda Powerboat Association (BPA) Round the Island race.

Bermuda Maritime Operations (Harbour Radio) issued a Mayday after receiving a 911 call from a relative of one of the men, at 12.30 p.m.. The Spirit, en route from Castle Harbour, was alongside minutes later.

Crew helped one man aboard while the other stayed clinging to the boat until the arrival of the Marine Police 'Rescue 3' boat at 12.45 p.m. The men were then transferred onto the Police vessel.

The Spirit's captain Jack Morton said: 'It is very gratifying to be able to give back to the marine community, and getting someone who is in trouble safely aboard is the most important service you can perform.'

Mr. Morton praised the 14 trainees and his five professional members of crew yesterday.

'The crew performed magnificently and did exactly what they should,' he said. 'They all responded very well.'

Elizabeth Chang, Bermuda Sloop Foundation educational programme director, was also aboard the schooner at the time of the incident.

'I think the men in the water were very grateful we had responded and were there to help,' she said.

'It is the first time we've had a rescue call like this with trainees on board and I think they impressed themselves at how they handled the sails in a way which was both safe and fast.'
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Letter from Reader:

Sender: Les Sutcliffe

Message: Can I just point out that Spirit is not a sloop? She has a twin headsail rig so obviously cannot be a sloop, Then again she has multiple masts so she can't be a sloop. She is, of course, a schooner. And very beautiful she is too.

Les Sutcliffe

Reply from Editor:
Hi Les
and thank you for your comments. You are quite right about the fact that she is a schooner of course, which had me scratching my head as to why her organisation is called the Bermuda Sloop Foundation.
I found the answer here:
'Spirit of Bermuda is a purpose-built sail training vessel based on civilian Bermudian-type schooners built in Bermuda by blacks and whites between 1810 and 1840. The original hull shape was adapted from the Bermuda-built Royal Navy 'Shamrock' class: fast dispatch / patrol vessels that ran from the Royal Naval Dockyard northwest to Halifax and southwest to Jamaica to contain the rebel colonies.

'The civilian Bermuda schooners were world-renowned for their speed, maneuverability, and the expert seamanship of the multi-racial Bermudian crews that sailed them.

Spirit carries the famed 'Bermuda' rig which originated on the coastal Bermuda sloops that abounded in the 17th and 18th centuries and in the early part of the 19th century. Faced with impassable pathways by land, Bermudians evolved the lateen rig to transit island waters, much of which involved sailing upwind. Equally, the fishing banks were upwind of the islands and the evolved 'Bermuda rig' gave the islanders much better upwind performance.

'The term 'sloop' was used loosely in Bermuda in the 17th and 18th centuries to refer to any sailing vessel. Spirit is not a sloop in the modern sense of the word, meaning a sailing vessel with one mast. Spirit is a schooner.'

She is also cutter rigged, (two twin headsails) which can be the case with either a sloop or a schooner.... and yes, what a beauty!