Claudia Ramirez racing in the Optimist Class.
Cécilia Pivin
MARIGOT–Non-profit association Caribbean Sail Training (CST) announced that in cooperation with A+ World Academy and the three-mast Tall Ship vessel Sørlandet, two trainees have been selected to participate in a new exciting sailing adventure.
Cécilia Pivin (16) from St. Martin and Claudia Ramirez (14) from Puerto Rico have been accepted to sail along during a six-week training voyage offered free of cost, starting February 12, 2020, and ending March 24, 2020.
The two youngsters will board Sørlandet, one of over 75 CST-member vessels, at Port de Marigot in St. Martin before sailing on to Ocho Rios in Jamaica, and then to New York in the USA.
The 2019-2020 itinerary started in Kristiansand, Norway, and will visit France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Canary Islands, Cabo Verde Islands, Brazil, Barbados, St. Martin/St. Maarten, Jamaica, New York, USA, the Azores, the Netherlands and back to Norway.
Both girls have some sailing experience with Claudia belonging to the sailing team of Ponce Yacht & Fishing Club in Puerto Rico. She has participated already in five international regattas sailing Optimists. Currently, she is mainly sailing a Laser 4.7.
Port de Marigot in St. Martin will host the Sørlandet on the pier during an open ship day for the public on Sunday, February 09, 2020.
Maritime School of the West Indies (MSWI) is co-sponsoring the sail training, open ship day and airline tickets for the Caribbean trainees to return from New York to St. Maarten. The school also offers a free-of-cost Safety course STCW’95 / 2010 to the trainees prior to the sailing.
Sørlandet is the world’s oldest and most authentic fully rigged ship still in active service. The ship was built in 1927 in Kristiansand, Norway, in 1927 as a full-rigged ship for training young people for the merchant marine. As the demand for regular training of young seamen decreased in the seventies, she extended the activities to welcome the general public on board.
The name Sørlandet comes from the southern region of Norway – it means the southern land. The ship is classified 1A1* in the NORSKE VERITAS and has all necessary certificates for worldwide trade. Her capacity is 70 trainees.
The A+ World Academy school is a university preparatory AP® secondary school offering an international AP® Capstone Diploma, and classes are taught onboard while the ship sails to different locations around the world and simultaneously trains the cadets in maritime history, safety, and sail training.
A+ World Academy takes pride in how rigorous it is academically, physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, and culturally. “We build grit, resilience, and perseverance through the radical nature of our programme and do not shy away from telling prospective students and parents/guardians that our students are pushed to extremes in all aspects.
“Our exhaustive programme of sail training, non-stop education programme, cultural field experiences at ports around the world and the difficulties related to living in a small community of learners with very little personal space or personal time, while encountering cultural differences on a weekly, if not daily, basis builds our students into global leaders with global experience.”
The Maritime School of the West Indies is located in Marigot, St. Martin, in the French West Indies on the dual nation Island St. Maarten-St. Martin. The school started with Crew Training Courses in the Caribbean in March 2003 as the first officially recognized Maritime School and is affiliated with International Yacht Training (IYT) world-wide in Canada.
All professional courses are Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) approved and recognized world-wide. The local Caribbean governments also recognize the courses.
In addition to marine-related courses such as STCW’95 / 2010, Master 200 Ton, Small Powerboat RIB and VHF course and many others, MSWI teaches Safety Courses from “Nederlands Instituut voor Bedrijfsveiligheid” for Hotels, Time-Share operations, Shops and businesses, as well as FAA “In-Flight Fire Fighting and Prevention and In-Flight First Aid” courses for airline pilots and airport employees.
MSWI has instructed courses for hundreds of mega and superyacht crews, local charter boat crew, airline pilots and others and has students coming from all over the world every season. For more information go to www.MaritimeSchool.net.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/93414-trainees-selected-for-voyage-to-ny-on-tall-ship-sorlandet
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