Windeward Bound tall ship sailing experience for youth on trip from Eden to Devonport

It was the STV Windeward Bound, an internationally award-winning Sail Training Brigantine, built of Tassie Eucalypt, Huon Pine, and Oregon, and constructed based on plans for an 1848 Boston built Topsail Schooner unearthed in a book.

The Windeward Bound Trust and Rotary International have collaborated to continue their special leadership development program to celebrate 100 years of Rotary, with children aged 14-17 having the opportunity to undertake a voyage with Captain Sarah Parry AM and her crew.

Having originally heard about the trip on the radio, parents James and Renee Jenkins said they were appreciative and grateful for the opportunity for Jesse to undertake this adventure, and said he was extremely excited.

"[I'm looking forward to] getting to learn how to drive that boat and pretty much everything, [but I'm] scared I'm going to fall off," Jesse said, who departed Eden September 19 and will arrive in Devonport, Tasmania on September 27.

Among the proud parents, family members and friends who waved children goodbye, a lady named Sally did a bit of a dance, perhaps to embarrass or make her son Alex smile before the voyage, while school teacher Phil Kalkman repeatedly asked, with a big smile, for photo evidence of hard work and blisters on hands.

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With the swirling wind and rough sea conditions, Captain Parry said most of the journey was going to look pretty good, but the first couple of days were going to be the worst.

"The first climb we want [to do] it in settled water, and we don't want to take them to sea for the first time at night, we want to take them to sea during the day time so they can see around them," Captain Parry said.

"Because if you go to sea at night time, the waves seem twice as high, the wind seems twice as strong, everything's twice as wild, and it worries them a bit."

Chris Ellis, honorary marketing manager for the STV Windeward Bound, and who helped during the build, said the programs have always been about assisting youth, teaching them the ropes of life, and putting them on better paths.

"It's very much a self-learning, guided, instructive sort of program that teaches them about themselves. They will come off the ship a different person, they will come off the ship with more confidence, more resilience, more ability to communicate, and better leadership skills," Mr Ellis said.

"They face their fears, they climb up the mast, they mightn't get up there the first time but they will get up there, and they'll be very confident in themselves that they did."

During the sail, three teams of six will do shifts of four hours on and eight hours off, raising and lowering sails manually.

Since its launch in 1996, the STV Windeward Bound has sailed more than 100,000 nautical miles, circumnavigated the Australian continent including Tasmania, sailed to New Zealand, and crossed Bass Strait more than 30 times, but on each voyage, they have aimed to carry Australia's youth.

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Captain Parry said she built the ship originally over the course of eight years and with a swag of volunteers, and described it as a community build.

"The hull itself is pretty much an exact copy of a ship which was built in 1848 in Boston in the United States, the difference is it carried cargo, we carry people," she said.

Captain Parry smiled as she approached the ship in Eden, ready for a life-changing adventure on the ocean.

"It's time to go to sea for the next leg of the voyage."

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