Lawrence used to sail with the Ocean Youth Club (OYC) between the ages of 16 and 25 so recently thought I could be a volunteer mate with the organisation as it is now, called the Ocean Youth Trust. I was invited along in March for a training/evaluation weekend where the 72ft yacht 'John Laing' took 12 prospective 'mates' with the OYT staff of 5 for a weekend in the Solent. The idea was to both see if I liked the way the OYT worked now and also to evaluate if the OYT wanted me to become a volunteer for later.

The big difference to our usual experience of sailing was the sheer number of people on board and making a point of using everyone to do the sailing. The bigger boat had equipment that encouraged the use of 4 to 6 people for most jobs to help a young crew to feel busy and needed. They try to get every crew member to do every job in turn.

It was cold and windy in the Solent but there was a bit of good sailing in between the learning exercises. I enjoy helming most boats but a 72ft boat on a windy day in flat water was great.

After the sailing came the mooring, tidying, cooking and eating. Hot food was very welcome after the zero degrees of March 2013. You can quickly make friends when you eat, sleep and sail in such a close environment so I hope I will get to sail with a few of these new friends again. The weekend was soon over and I rejoined Waterdog in Belgium.