ActionQuest is an organization which offers adventure programs during the Northern Hemisphere summertime to teenagers. ActionQuest runs sailing and SCUBA training programs throughout the Caribbean, Australia, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Tahiti, and the Mediterranean.
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Mission
ActionQuest is an institution dedicated to "guiding diverse groups of young adults on exceptional global expeditions; challenging them with high action adventures that promote personal growth, teamwork and leadership".
BVI Trip
The BVI trips attract teens from numerous countries.
History
ActionQuest began running programs in the British Virgin Islands in the mid-1980s; however, its seafaring history extends back to the Flint School. The owner of ActionQuest sailed with the Flint School in his youth before starting ActionQuest and also sailed with Irving and Exy Johnson, who are considered the pioneers of sea training.
ActionQuest headquarters are in Sarasota, Florida. Programs are run out of West End, Tortola, at Soper's Hole Marina using yachts chartered from Sunsail. Sunsail has since moved its charter base from West End to Hodge's Creek and finally to Road Town in 2007. ActionQuest continues to charter boats through them.
When the owner's son decided to complete his goal of sailing around the world, he sailed to various locations which ActionQuest then decide to expand to with their programs. By the late 1990s, ActionQuest included programs in satellite locations such as Tahiti and French Polynesia, Fiji, Australia, and the Galapagos.
In 2006, ActionQuest's sister company Seamester built the 112-foot staysail schooner Argo for college students; however, in the summertime, programs are opened to high school teenagers to sail aboard in either the Mediterranean or the Western Pacific.
ActionQuest uses PADI certified scuba instructors and offers courses from Open Water through Divemaster. ActionQuest also works with International Yachtmaster Training (IYT) for sailing certifications. The Majority of students gain an Open Water certification in the British Virgin Islands. Marine Biology is also offered for high school credit in the BVIs. [3]
From ActionQuest grew two other institutions, Seamester Global Programs and Lifeworks International. Seamester owns two schooner, Ocean Star and Argo to run full-time training programs for college students around the world. Lifeworks International runs community-service based programs in the British Virgin Islands, Australia, China, Galapagos, Costa Rica, and Thailand.