Norwegian Tall Ship Christian Radich to visit Saint Martin again after 6 years
by Caribbean Sail Training 12 Jan 23:28 AEDT
January 19, 2025
The non-profit association Caribbean Sail Training announced today that the majestic sail training vessel Christian Radich will visit St.Martin again and that they will offer an "Open Ship" day to the public on Sunday January 19, 2025 at the Galisbay Port Marigot. The ship is again hosted by Alberic Ellis and his team of the Port de Marigot at the commercial Pier in Galisbay.
The Christian Radich departed from Port Las Palmas in the Canary Islands on December 29th 2024 with a new captain: Oddrun Irene Bø is now at the helm of the Christian Radich. Norway now has its first female Tall ship captain!
Oddrun Irene Bø has always had a great sense of adventure. When she was young, she dreamed of sailing around the world, of discovering new cultures and people. Eventually, she realized that the maritime life was going to be her livelihood and started moving up the ranks. In the autumn of 2023, she started her job as captain of the Christian Radich.
"I was already familiar with the sailing community, and coming back to it felt like coming home. I left the community in 2011 when I started in the cargo shipping industry along the Norwegian coast from Fredrikstad to Kirkenes," says Bø.
Before she became a captain on the Christian Radich, Bø had also been stationed in Finnmark for four years working as a skipper on the rescue boat in Båtsfjord. In the beginning of 2024, she was in Las Palmas where Christian Radich was on a maintenance stop and docked for four weeks. Oddrun Irene started skippering when the sailing season began in February.
Bø is Norway's first female sailing ship captain, and it is not the first time Bø has been asked about her maritime experience. Being a woman at sea attracts attention. She works in four-week shifts, and when on land she lives in Tvedestrand with her husband and two children.
"As a woman at sea, one is constantly confronted with old ideas about women. There are other women who are captains on other vessels, but there are still not so many of us. I would say that the sailing community is more modern than the maritime industry as a whole. Christian Radich opened up for women onboard already in the 1980s, and I am a product of that philosophy," says Bø, who considers it important that young people get a positive image of women in leadership positions.
"Most of all, I am focused on doing a good job, regardless of gender. But I know that I am particularly visible because I am a woman in a male-dominated environment. Therefore, it is important that the young girls and boys on board get a good impression of women in leadership positions."
She believes that life at sea is so good that any woman who feels attracted to it should jump headfirst into it, saying, "Some of the traditional attitudes towards women at sea are really unproductive and need to be addressed. But I do not think this should stop girls who want to try working at sea."
The Sail Training Vessel Christian Radich is 73 meters long (240 ft) including the bowsprit, the beam is 9.7 m and she has been build in 1937 in Norway. She carries 1360 square meters of sails and the highest mast is 37 meters.
The crew consists of 15 -20 professionals and she can accommodate 80 trainees.
From St.Martin the ship will sail to Bermuda and again across the Atlantic Ocean to Stavanger in Norway.
Open ship day with free entrance to the public:
SUNDAY JANUARY 19, 2025 From 10.00 hrs (10 am) until 16.00 hrs (4pm) Commercial Harbor Galisbay Pier Saint Martin. No cars and no walking allowed in the port, bus shuttle will be available.