No phones at Masterskip

A striking campaign from Masterskip: the foundation that takes high school students on ocean voyages decides to go offline for six weeks during their trip. A smart move, apparently, because never before have so many students signed up.

While the world struggles with addiction to smartphones and social media, Masterskip is seeing just the opposite trend. More and more schoolchildren are choosing to come along and cut themselves off from the outside world for six weeks.
In recent years, the organisation has grown from one tallship with 80 spots to three of its own ships with a total of 450 participants.

No phones

Director Frank Stienstra also finds it remarkable. But he does not think the high number of registrations has a direct link to the new phone policy. “We know that phones are not at all necessary on board and therefore it is not such a big step for us,” he says.
“What regular education and parents cannot offer, we get to do. I think that’s why the enthusiasm is so great.”

Too many distractions

The reason phones are almost not allowed is because it would cause too many distractions. “Phones are incredibly interesting and fun to sink into. But when you do that, you are not on board and you are not in the moment. Just because you are on the ship, you always have distractions.”

Besides: on the ocean, there is hardly any coverage. During previous voyages, participants therefore put the phones away on their own accord. “But that always took a while,” says Stienstra. “And that’s a shame, because then you’ve already missed several weeks. That’s why we decided to take the phone in from the start.”
So the phones were already hardly used. Indeed, in fact, not at all.

Own responsibility

The policy works as follows: schoolchildren come on board and find their seats. Then it is time for the last message to family and friends. With a small ceremony, the phones go into a box and are put away.

After that, there is about two weeks of sailing, i.e. without a mobile. Then the teachers determine the first moment when the phones are allowed out of the coffin for a while.
After that moment, the phones go back into the box. After another two weeks, the trainees themselves choose when the phones are allowed out again.

At the very end, the trainees are given full responsibility. Not just over the phones, but over the whole ship. At that point, the ship basically runs entirely on trainees. “They will then also get their phones back,” says Stienstra. “But I hope they will put them away for a while.”

Read the whole article by Pelle Numan on the Watersport tv site.
Image: Watersport tv.

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