Steering a course towards eudaimonia: the effects of sail training on well-being and character

ABSTRACT

Sail training voyages have been shown to enhance self-constructs and inter-personal and intra-personal skills. It is suggested through this case-study approach with twelve 14 year-old crew participants that such an experience contributes towards well-being and character development in emerging adulthood. An audit of voyage-based experiences generated an inventory of 58 authentic activities and participants completed questionnaires immediately post-voyage (T¹) and six months later (T²) to rate the significance of each activity. The highest rated activities reflected Maslow’s lower order of needs with a two-thirds correspondence at T¹ and T². Helming (or steering the vessel) was ranked as the most significant activity by participants in both time periods, although participants had questioned their ability to do this before the voyage. Helming is suggested to activate cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains in an authentic adventure education experience that contributes to hedonic well-being and may provide a course towards eudaimonia.

KEYWORDS:

• Sail training
• well-being
• character
• adventure education
• youth transition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The STV James Cook is operated by the Ocean Youth Trust North (www.oytnorth.org.uk), a charity providing ‘adventure under sail’ for 12–25 year olds.

2. The term significance is used here in its literal sense without statistical connotations, inferring a more in-depth exploration of the importance of activities.

3. The Multidimensional Self-Concept Scale is one of a range of valid and reliable tools to measure child and adolescent multidimensional self-concept (Anstey, 1999; Bracken, Bunch, Keith, & Keith, 2000).

4. In this context the word ‘unconsciously’ is used to describe how an individual may utilise outcomes from their experience instinctively or without thinking about them.

5. The school is described by Ofsted as a ‘smaller than average-sized’ secondary school with 853 pupils (as at June 2013) aged 11–16 years. In their 2013 Ofsted Report the school was graded as ‘good in all areas’. This was the school’s third annual voyage aboard James Cook; this type of residential experience is incorporated into whole-school activities.

6. These anomalies were not investigated within the scope of this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Fletcher

Eric Fletcher is a mature student. Having completed this independent study with the University of Cumbria, he is now a doctoral candidate at the School of Education, Communication and Language Studies, Newcastle University continuing his research interest in ‘adventure under sail’. He is an active volunteer with the Ocean Youth Trust North, which includes supporting voyages as a Watch Leader, and ashore as their Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Heather Prince

Heather Prince is Associate Professor in Outdoor and Environmental Education at the University of Cumbria. She has research and teaching interests in pedagogic practice in outdoor and adventure education and has a long standing involvement in sailing, including more recently with sail training through the Ocean Youth Trust North. She is a co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Outdoor Studies and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.