Eco Village Mistletoe Bay and a French Pass cutter owner have joined together to provide Marlborough children with a greater understanding of the Marlborough Sounds marine environment.
The environmentally focused village now has the use of a cutter named Steadfast and will work with its skipper and marine biologist Richard de Hamel to educate school groups who stay at the bay.
The village pays about half of what commercial and private customers pay to charter the vessel.
Mistletoe Bay marketing and programme director Jonathan Collier said students would spend part of their stay on the cutter learning about marine life, navigation and sailing.
The cutter will also be available for corporate and private groups which choose to stay at the village, he said.
Most similar vessels used for education, such as the Spirit of Adventure, are often not ideal for school groups, because they sometimes involve several days at sea, he said.
Steadfast, a replica based on French pilot cutter from 1913, gave the students a taste of what it was like to be at sea, he said.
Skipper Laurence Etheredge built the cutter over 16 years and sailed it from Albany in West Australia to Picton in 2006.
Mr Etheredge, who operates out of French Pass, will still be hiring out the vessel to private customers when not in use at Mistletoe Bay.
Joining sailing and education was a natural fit, because he enjoyed his work as a counsellor at a residential school in the United States and had a strong love of being on the water.
He and Mistletoe Bay chairman Simon Heath also shared the same vision of offering something to the community which was beneficial and educational, he said.
Schools in Nelson also use the cutter for educational trips, and Garin College students use it to develop their sailing skills.
The cutter, which can hold about 35 people, acts as a floating classroom with small groups of children doing science experiments such as looking at plankton under microscopes, along with learning how to navigate.
Children also learn the basics of sailing and how the environment and the cutter interact, he said.
"There's some challenge involved in sailing. You need experience managing the wind and the vessel to accommodate what you want to do."
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
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