From Optimist to Tallship 1

Puck is 14 years old and wants only one thing: to go out on the ocean with School at Sea. She describes the difficult road towards it in a number of blogs. This is the first: about ‘that other ocean’.

After a hard week of tests, I only want one thing: to go on the water. Just to clear my head. In the harbour, I see my 29er, and my sailing buddy standing. As soon as I step onto the jetty, I feel calm. This is the place where everything makes sense. Yet, as I check the lines, I think of something bigger than any training or race I have ever sailed: School at Sea. A year from now, I won’t be stepping on a 29er, but on a tallship crossing the Atlantic. A weird, but great idea.

World Cup sailor

I am Puck Habets, 14 years old, a student in 3 grammar school. Started at eight in an Optimist, in which I really learned to sail: first with the Roei- en Zeilvereniging Gouda, then with Team Rotterdam, then the national team and finally in an international team. I came to the most beautiful places: Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Malta, Kiel, Nieuwpoort, Valencia and Lake Garda. I mostly saw ports, airports and water. It was a wonderful time where I learned to persevere and trust myself.

My first experience with a two-man boat was in the RSFeva, during the World Cup in the Netherlands and a year later in France. I recently started sailing in the 29er, a fast, technical boat in which everything is about teamwork, timing and guts. Sailing is my passion, but School at Sea is something else. There, it’s not about a starting line or results, but about responsibility, working together and facing yourself at times you don’t see coming.

Great language

Why do I want to cross the ocean? Because you can’t delay or hide anything there. You have to do it together, every day. I want to discover how I react when things are against me, when the sea is rougher than I am used to, or when I doubt myself. School at Sea is all about taking responsibility, thinking creatively and working together. That may sound like grown-up language, but that is exactly what attracts me: learning to make choices, take charge and get to know myself without someone constantly telling me what to do.

I like the practical part of School at Sea best of all. You are on the sea for six months. You alternate between two study days when you just have lessons and two watch days when you keep the ship running. Then you are busy setting sails, navigating, cooking, cleaning, doing night watches and making sure everything keeps functioning. I imagine what it feels like standing on the bow at sunrise, or looking for stars to navigate in the middle of the night. And then there are the countries where you dock: Caribbean islands, parts of South America, new cultures.

Another ‘ocean’

But before I step on board, I’m going through another ocean: fundraising. I’m going to raise 30,000 euros. Sometimes that feels almost as big as the Atlantic Ocean itself. I’ve already made great strides, but also often heard ‘no’. That remains tricky. I’m 14, and I want to achieve something that feels huge. Sometimes I think: why should a company help me? But every time someone does show interest, or asks how things are going, it gives me such a boost. I am already learning how important it is to persevere, to try again and not be afraid to approach someone.

My sailing background helps me a lot. The discipline of training, dealing with disappointments, carrying on in strong winds – I take that into my fundraising as well as school work. This test week didn’t go the way I hoped, but that’s part of it. And I’ll keep fighting, because if I don’t get a 7.0 average, I can’t compete.

Blogs

I am only at the beginning of this adventure. In these blogs, I show how I am preparing: in my training sessions, my school work and especially my fundraising. The latter at the request of the editors: because according to them, ‘the journey before the trip’ can be as interesting as the trip itself, which of course I hope to cover. I will write again in six weeks, with a new milestone. Maybe a sponsor. Maybe a success. Maybe a setback from which I learned a lot. You can follow me; here, and on my website. See you soon!

I am standing on the jetty. The wind is picking up. Time to take to the water. This is my starting point. The ocean comes later – but I’m on my way.

Puck.

Windassist sponsor