London.Ever since Baroness Ariane de Rothschild first heard about the local sail training organisation Joves Navegants, she has been stalwart in her support for the charity, even emblazoning their logo on the stern of her family's massive sailing catamaran, Gitana Extreme. Now she has sponsored six teens from the foundation to fly to Paris, then take a high speed train to L'Orient before sailing aboard the monster cat for a day.
The Rothschild yacht is total techno sailing. She can reach speeds of 40 knots even in light winds and all crew have to wear helmets as well as all the more conventional protective gear. For the children from Joves Navegants the trip on 5th and 6th of June will be packed full of novelty experiences; many have never been on a plane before, let alone welcomed into the illustrious inner circle of one of the most famous families on the planet.
The effectiveness of sail training as a tool to aid the social integration of marginalised youngsters has been fully recognised in Majorca over the past 20 years and Joves Navegants are continually increasing their efforts to expand the programmes they offer. A year ago the charity's 21 metre yacht, Galaxie, was joined by the smaller racing craft, Audaz (The Brave).
Audaz is not owned by the foundation but her owner has an agreement with them to allow the young people to enter the yacht in all the local winter regattas. In return Joves Navegants keeps the yacht in full working order so that when the owner wishes to revert to using it exclusively for himself and his family in the summer months, he knows he will not have to roll up his sleeves and undertake all the maintenance that is usually required aboard yachts that are only active during the high season.
This arrangement has worked so well that Joves Navegants is searching for other yacht owners who would like to enter into similar forms of collaboration. The value of competing in local regattas has proved to be immense for the young people and there are many more who would like to experience the training and discipline it demands. The lucky youngsters who jet off for France next week will be compiling a photo diary of their Rothschild experience to let Bulletin readers know just what it's like to be crew aboard one of the world's swiftest yachts. Meanwhile the group who spend almost every weekend honing their talents on Audaz still cling to the old adage, the Goddess of Fortune smiles on the Brave and even without a mountain of Kevlar they believe they can give the Rothschilds a run for their money
in their own class, of course!
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