| Founded | 1974 |
|---|---|
| Location | Victoria, British Columbia |
| Key people | Loren Hagerty Executive Director David Eggert Operations Manager |
| Area served | Canada and USA |
| Focus | Sail Training |
| Motto | Training, by the sea, for life |
| Website | SALTS.ca |
S.A.L.T.S. Sail and Life Training Society, founded in 1974, is a non-profit Christian organization based in Victoria, British Columbia, which provides sail training for 2000 young people per year. [1] [2]
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In summer, trips of 9 or 10 days are made in waters surrounding Vancouver Island. In spring and autumn, shorter trips are made with school or church groups. Every few years, an offshore voyage divided into legs of 2 to 3 months is offered.
Trainees are taught navigation, rules of the road, and ropework. They are divided into watches and participate in sail handling, dory handling, steering, bosun's chores, cooking and watch-keeping.
S.A.L.T.S. owns, maintains and operates two tall ships, Pacific Swift and Pacific Grace. Both were built by the Society, which maintains a shipyard at the former Coast Guard base on Victoria's Upper Harbour. To help fund its programs, the society also repairs and sells donated sailing yachts and motor craft. Donated boats are surveyed and their donors are issued a receipt for income tax purposes for the value set by the surveyor.
For the complete article, see Pacific Swift (ship)
The hull of Pacific Swift was built as a working exhibit at Expo 86 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is based on the brigantine Swift of 1778. The society had built another brigantine, Spirit of Chemainus, in 1985. Pacific Swift has made four off-shore voyages, which have included visits to Expo 88 in Australia and Expo 92 in Seville, to the West Indies and to the remote communities of Easter Island and Pitcairn Island.
| Characteristics [3] | |
|---|---|
| Sparred Length | 111' |
| Overall Length | 81' |
| Beam | 20' 6" |
| Draught | 10' 6" |
| Displacement | 98 Tonnes |
| Rig | Topsail Schooner |
| Accommodation | 37 Berths |
| Coastal Complement | 5 Crew, 30 Trainees |
| Offshore Complement | 6 Crew, 21 Trainees |
Pacific Grace was built at the S.A.L.T.S. Heritage Shipyard in Victoria, launched in October 1999 and commissioned in May 2001. She is based on the Grand Banks fishing schooner Robertson II, which the society operated from 1974 to 1995. After two seasons of coastal sailing, she departed in September 2003 on her first offshore voyage: down the coast to Costa Rica, west to Galapagos and Pitcairn, and back through the Marquesas and the Hawaiian Islands. From June 2007 to June 2008, she made a longer voyage, to the South Pacific, calling at: Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Guam, Okinawa, Shanghai, Osaka, Hawaii.
| Characteristics [4] | |
|---|---|
| Sparred Length | 138' 7" |
| Overall Length | 115' |
| Beam | 22' |
| Draught | 11' 6" |
| Displacement | 175 Tonnes |
| Rig | Gaff Schooner |
| Accommodation | 38 Berths |
| Coastal Complement | 5 Crew, 31 Trainees |
| Offshore Complement | 6 Crew, 24 Trainees |
| Office and Shipyard Staff [5] | |
|---|---|
| Loren Hagerty | Executive Director |
| Andrew Buhr | Comptroller |
| David Eggert | Operations Manager |
| Robin Irving | Booking Manager |
| Susie Dancer | Executive Assistant |
| Patrick Sharman | Shipyard Manager |
| Ship's Crew | |
| Tony Anderson | Master |
| John Andrachuk | Master |
| Matt Lemay | Mate |
| Sam Vaale | Mate |
| Nicole Ames | 2nd Mate |
| Alysson Thicke | 2nd Mate |
| Tristan Hedley | Bosun |
| Andrew Dean | Bosun |
| Michelle Taekema | Cook |
| Kailey Thompson | Cook |