Focus Sail Training Area served British Columbia | Revenue $3.3 million in 2012 Founded 1974 | |
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Location Victoria, British Columbia Key people Loren Hagerty
Executive Director
David Eggert
Operations Manager Slogan Training Young People, by the sea, for life Motto Training Young People, by the sea, for life | ||
The Sail and Life Training Society (SALTS), founded in 1974, is a non-profit Christian organization based in Victoria, British Columbia, which provides sail training and life lessons for 1,700 young people each year on tall ships and provides a valued link to area's maritime heritage. Currently, SALTS administrative offices are located on Herald Street in downtown Victoria, with a shop space located nearby in the Rock Bay area.
Contents
Programs
Young people ages 13–25 are given the experience of learning to sail a tall ship, which the organization describes as "life-changing." In addition to learning a large set of sailing skills, they learn teamwork, responsibility, interpersonal skills, and facing fears, resulting in increased confidence (for example when climbing the rigging 115’ in the air on a moving ship).> A bursary program is offered with help from other group partners, to make the program affordable to young people who are at risk, in low income households, or experiencing challenging life situations.
In the spring and fall, voyages are made from Ship Point Wharf in Victoria, British Columbia to the Gulf Islands. In the summer, voyages are more ambitious, circumnavigating Vancouver Island, sailing to the central coast of British Columbia and the Great Bear Rainforest, and exploring southern Alaska and Haida Gwaii.
Every few years, an offshore voyage has been held to ports around the world, where youth can participate in selected legs of the journey. Due to new Canadian regulations for offshore vessels which the current tall ships do not meet, these trips are on hold until a new schooner is completed.
Group programs are offered with over 30 public and private schools, university programs, and youth groups bringing 20 - 30 young people and their adult chaperones.
Day sails are also made available to interested sailors of all ages.
Fundraising
SALTS is a registered Canadian charity. A large portion of program costs are funded through boat donations. SALTS arranges a third-party appraisal for the value of the tax receipt issued, and handles moorage, transportation and broker's fees.
A major campaign is underway for the capital cost of a new 116' Pilot Schooner. As of July, 2014, approximately 50% of the $6.3 million had been raised.
Ships
SALTS owns, maintains and operates two tall ships, Pacific Swift and Pacific Grace. Both were built by the Society in a shipyard at the former Coast Guard base on Victoria's Upper Harbour. A new 116' Pilot Schooner is being custom designed, and fundraising is underway for the $6.3 million project.
Pacific Swift
The hull of Pacific Swift was built as a working exhibit at Expo 86 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is based on the brigantine Swift of 1778. The society had built another brigantine, Spirit of Chemainus, in 1985. Pacific Swift has made four off-shore voyages, which have included visits to Expo 88 in Australia and Expo 92 in Seville, to the West Indies and to the remote communities of Easter Island and Pitcairn Island.
Pacific Grace
Pacific Grace was built at the S.A.L.T.S. Heritage Shipyard in Victoria, launched in October 1999 and commissioned in May 2001. She is based on the Grand Banks fishing schooner Robertson II, which the society operated from 1974 to 1995. After two seasons of coastal sailing, she departed in September 2003 on her first offshore voyage: down the coast to Costa Rica, west to Galapagos and Pitcairn, and back through the Marquesas and the Hawaiian Islands. From June 2007 to June 2008, she made a longer voyage, to the South Pacific, calling at: Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Guam, Okinawa, Shanghai, Osaka, Hawaii.