Some background information to this innovative project

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The Huon Valley is nestled along the Huon River, which flows 100 kilometres from Lake Pedder in South West Tasmania to the Southern Ocean.  It is a large river estuary and as such has played a significant part in the history of the Huon Valley both before and after European settlement in the early 1800’s.  The river became the lifeline of the valley as it became increasingly settled, with occupations centred around whaling, sealing and timber harvesting.  A significant timber felled in the valley was the Huon Pine, endemic to this part of Tasmania.  This species can live for over 2000 years and the resins contained in it make the timber impervious to rot.  It became the basis of the region’s ship building heritage and is still sought world wide for this purpose.

The Living Boat Trust Inc is a volunteer organisation established and incorporated in 1997 for the purpose of community development through involving the local community in the maintenance of Tasmania’s maritime heritage. Its activities have been largely directed towards providing boat building skills, sail training and rowing training in traditional wooden boats for local youth, through Huon Valley Youth Services, Franklin Primary School, Glen Huon Primary School, Huonville Primary School and Geeveston District High School.

It has also built a Community Workshop, now used on a regular weekly basis for free classes in wooden boat building for its members, and in order to maintain an existing fleet of small boats, built mainly through public funding by the Shipwright’s Point School of Wooden Boat Building, (now The Wooden Boat Centre) in Franklin between 1991 and 2000, and by the Trust since 1998.

This workshop has been used to build and maintain a reproduction of an 1860 Tasmanian Whaleboat, Swiftsure II, funded by the Tasmanian Bi-centenary Committee, and now in regular use by local schools, Adult Education, Trust members, private schools and for corporate team building. The shed has been used to provide premises and professional leadership for a successful Colony 47 Boatbuilding Project, and is now used for regular free classes in wooden boatbuilding for its members and maintenance of the fleet of vessels in the care of the Trust.

In 2005 the Trust was awarded a grant through the Playground Blitz program to build, with students from all the state schools in the Huon Valley, an addition to its existing fleet of four clinker-built sailing dinghies, to be used for the purposes outlined in this grant application, and owned by all the schools in the Huon Cluster. This was achieved, on time and within budget, and is now being used by students and community members.

In both 2005 and 2006 a Community Regatta was held on the old regatta grounds on the shores of the Huon River at Franklin.  Water and land based physical activities were provided for over 200 students and adults.  In the months leading up to the regatta, students were regularly transported for rowing practice, conducted by the Living Boat Trust volunteers.

Scope of Project

This scheme is designed to enable the Huon Cluster of schools (Geeveston District High, Dover District High, Franklin Primary, Glen Huon Primary, Cygnet Primary, Huonville Primary and Huonville High School) and the Living Boat Trust to assist in furthering the physical activities of participating children in relation to rowing and sailing.

It is an innovative project as it builds on continued co-operation between a cluster of schools and a hugely successful community organisation, thus enhancing community capacity to assist in engaging young people in an active lifestyle.  In addition it is an inclusive project as it creates opportunities for those individuals, families and groups who are often excluded or marginalised by the traditionally male-dominated country sports of cricket and football. It will provide opportunity to those families who do not have the financial resources to engage in water-borne activities and therefore are not able to engage with a vast natural resource on their doorstep. 18 % of our cluster students are Aboriginal and these students also form an important part of our target group.

The benefits will be felt at several levels. Basic water safety will be taught to all participating students. Using oars and sails in a variety of craft (two whaleboats, a schooner dory, five sailing dinghies, eight kayaks and six canoes) will provide exercise and encourage independence and pride in the skill required to utilise natural forces to accomplish serious purposes. That will increase self-confidence and an ability to work well with others. It will re-introduce participants to a part of their heritage that their grandparents grew up with and took for granted. Contact with members of the Living Boat Trust instructors will further develop this opportunity for building social capital as the adolescents come into contact with retired people, passionate about sailing and the waterways of the Huon.

As stated this project will teach traditional sailing, rowing and associated water safety skills to  students from all the Huon Cluster schools. Each child will hopefull attain a Basic Skills 1 certificate offered by Yachting Australia, a qualification that will encourage them to gain further competencies on the water. It will culminate in an annual community regatta, the Swiftsure Regatta, held in November each year in which adults and children compete in both rowing and sailing events. This will provide a focus to the development of student's skills and motivation and will also be utilised as an important means of evaluating the success of the project.

Aims and Objectives

1. To promote sailing and rowing as valuable physical activities to the targeted students.

2..To use the natural and historical resources of the Huon Valley to build community around physical activity.

3.To fully utilise the expertise and skills of the Living Boat Trust in a community partnership to teach sailing and rowing to children across the Huon Valley

4.To continue the successful annual regatta as a celebration of these skills and as a vehicle for “building community”.

5. To support the water based courses with a school based program led by an outdoor education teacher which examines the need for healthy eating, fitness training and lifestyle choices.

The Swiftsure School Regatta will be expanded and further developed into not only a rowing event but incorpate sailing events in  its  program.  This strategy has been found successful when working with this target group who respond to both competitive and time trailed events.  The regatta will continue to engage students in land based activities such as Life. Be In It games, circus skills and activities provided by the Kingston Fusion youth centre.

Giving students the regular weekly opportunity to participate in an accredited course alongside their peers will develop their skills, confidence and understanding of sailing and rowing.

The members  of the Living Boat Trust are a diverse group of both retired professional and skilled sailors and craftspeople.  Contact with such passionate, capable and enthusiastic people who have a genuine love of the water, environment and wooden boats is seen as an opportunity for our students to make connections and build social connections with members of their community with whom they may not usually come in contact.                                                                                           

The use of  local mentors such as Geeveston Olympian and ‘Awesome Foursome’ Rower Simon Burgess will be one of the means by which students will be engaged in examining what it means to be healthy and active. Representatives from local sailing clubs in  Cygnet, Dover and Geeveston along with rowers from the Huon Rowing Club will also be used as consultants in the school based  aspect of the program and as motivational speakers.

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION

The training will be located at Living Boat Trust headquarters on the Huon River Franklin Tasmania.  Here the LBT stores the Swiftsure, sailing Grebes and all assoicated safety equipment.  It has a launching jetty and pick up boats.  The teacher will conduct school based classes as each school is timetabled to particiapte in their course.

THE TARGET GROUP

The target group consists of school students from Grades 4 to 10 (10 – 16 year olds) in the Huon Valley, a rural and remote community south of Hobart.  The valley is recognised by educational and other departmnents as socially and economically disadvantaged.This group has been identified by the Cluster, The Huon Community Health Centre and the Huon Valley Council  as having declining levels of activity leading to increasing levels of obesity (see letters of support). The Huon Valley also has large proportion of familes of indigenous descent,with this cohort forming 18% of student enrolment.  The project will have approximately 150 participants over the 18 month time frame.

ACTIVITIES AND PROGRAM OFFERED

The course is designed to provide a safe and enjoyable introduction to small boat sailing for novices. It includes an introduction to the fundamental boat handling skills and essential safety knowledge in a variety of craft.  This will allow its participants the freedom to sail, paddle and row small boats with guidance of an instructor or coach and with rescue boats always on site.

Students will be involved in a 11 week sailing and rowing course in each of the five school terms for which funding is sought .  Between 10 and 15  students will be in each group and the program will run two or three groups per week over the eighteen month period.

The Basic Skills 1 course covers:

•Group and individual safety awareness, clothing safety equipment when sailing

•Wind awareness and awareness of rigging

•Basic rope work

•Paddling and rowing with reaching and helming under supervision

•Capsize recovery drill and rowing

•Launching and returning techniques

•Sail theory and rules

•Basic meteorology- understanding the clouds

•Wind awareness and direction

The project will use existing expertise, equipment and infrastructure to achieve its goals:

•The LBT has a strong cohort of experienced instructors

•Five Grebe class wooden sailing dinghies each taking a crew of three (built by school   students at the LBT workshop) exists. The Whaleboat “Swiftsure’, crewed by a team of seven (also built by students with LBT tutors) exists. The sailing whaleboat Capricornia which proved herself so distinctively on the Tawe Nunnugah RAID 2009 is a veriitable sailing classroom and will be a great asset for the LBT training programme. Dover District High and Huonville High have their own of kayaks and canoes which would be available to all involved. The entire fleet can be used several times a week.

•Boat launching facilities, jetties and a boathouse exist at the regatta grounds adjacent to the LBT workshop.

•Expertise in co-ordinating student training and regatta management has been developed by school staff and the LBT through the successful management of previous regattas and expeditons.

This project aims to provide a reason for students to become involved and motivated to learn new skills and at the same time enjoy the physical activity involved in doing so. The annual Swiftsure Regatta gives students the motivation to improve their skills in a competitive environment. This event  has the capacity to engage a large cross section of the community across the whole of the Huon Valley  In 2006 the Regatta attracted large spectator support from families and student's peers who are now keen to participate in 2007.  It is anticipated that new events will be introduced for parents and teachers to support this interest.  Further evidence of continued  interest in rowing was that members of a staff  rowing crew in the Swiftsure who entered in a time trial event in 2006 continued to row on a weekly basis after being introduced to the the event.