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Displaying items by tag: Adventure Sail Trainee Craft

#AdventureSailing- HMSTC Arctic Express and Discoverer are a pair of UK adventure expedition sail-training craft (STC) for members of the armed forces who are to visit Dublin Port over the weekend, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The vessels are operated by the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) which is a sail training establishment situated in Gosport opposite the Royal Navy's premier naval base in Portsmouth.

The mission statement of the JSASTC is "to develop the personal qualities essential to members of the Armed Forces through adventurous sail training in the Service environment".

The purpose of JSASTC is to develop the character and leadership qualities essential to members of the Armed Forces through offshore sailing in the Service environment.

The objectives achieved by providing Sail Training Craft (STC), skippers, instructors, engineering and logistic support and sail training courses is to train personnel of the three armed services so that they are able to support and ultimately lead, adventurous sail training expeditions in service yachts, both in UK and abroad.

An example of an overseas adventure expedition was the deployment of the HMSTC Discover that saw the 22 metre (67ft) sail training craft make passage from Halifax Canada via Greenland crossing the Atlantic to Iceland and Greenland.

From Greenland the vessel sailed to Norway via Jan Mayan. From Tromso she sailed to Bergen via the Lofoten Islands before finally sailing to her homeport of Gosport via Denmark and The Netherlands.

Published in Naval Visits

RC35 Class

The concept of the RC35 Class is to bring together similar boats within a close handicap banding and to work with owners and crews to develop the best racing experience possible on the Clyde and the Irish Sea area. The Class is within a tight rating band (IRC 1.015-1.040) yacht racing will be in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Q: What is the RC35 ‘Rule’?
A: Qualifying yachts for the RC35 Class will sit within an IRC Banding of 1.015 to 1.040. In 2017 it is proposed that a tolerance of +/- 0.05pts will be permitted

Q: Are there any other criteria?
A: RC35 takes the most prevalent IRC racing boats on the Clyde and groups them within a fixed rating band. Qualifying boats will have an LOA 32ft—38ft and displacement of between 3,000kg—9,000kg. The rule also requires boats conform to ISAF Cat.4 be anti-fouled and not dry sailed. A limit of sail purchases (2 per year) also applies.

Q: What is the RC35 Championship?
A: The RC35 Championship will cover 8 events (6 to count) and include events such as Scottish Series, Dun Laoghaire/Bangor and an RC35 Championship weekend. Each year the Class will make a commitment to one ‘away’ regatta as part of the Championship.