WHAT THE MEDIA SAY
From an article by Richard Moore
Date: 04/02/00
WILD WEEKEND
If the BBC's Castaway 2000
series is anything to go by, a theme for the new century
could be escapism. More and more people seem to
be looking to get away from it all-if only for a few
days-and that's creating a booming industry in
excursions which specialise in 'roughing it.' But
you don't need to wait for the BBC's next 'social experiment,' and you needn't necessarily have to
pay over the odds to indulge in a spot of escapism.
Westward Quest is a
charitable
Company, which owns and maintains two sailing boats and organises a range of
trips for an even wider range of people. Since the company is a not-for-profit enterprise the cost to participants is kept to a minimum, and subsidised places are available Not bad for an
experience which involves living and working on a luxurious sailing boat costing somewhere in the region of £100,000.
Weaver, the boat currently in use, can take nine people on trips, typically from two to five
days in length, while the trust's original vessel, the smaller, less luxurious
Scampi III-winner of the
World half-ton Cup in 1972 -- is consigned to semi-retirement. From March, for as long as the weather allows, Weaver is pretty much constantly in
use, and last year over 100 people, many of them
complete novices, took part in Westward Quest's
programme of excursions.
Of the four directors of the trust,
two are professionally
qualified yachtmasters,
including Robert Rae. According to him: "it's not uncommon, on short
coastal trips, for there to be only one really experienced person on board-which
sounds a bit
horrifying. But that's not the
intention at all. "What we do is not commercial, nor does it involve any sort of formal training," continues
Rae. "We just aim to give
people a good time-it's got to be fun. I don't subscribe to the idea of taking people
out and making them sea
sick-I don't know that that
really builds character. It can be wild, but hopefully it's always fun."
Nevertheless, there is
plenty of
scope for observing people as they come
