Ocean sailing: a more challenging alternative to regular seafaring

For young people, ocean sailing is a good alternative to regular seafaring, which offers less and less challenge. So stated Matthijs Wever as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Enkhuizen Nautical College (EZS), during the graduation ceremony.

Wever, family of EZS founder Henk Wever, was critical about the labour market situation in the shipping industry in his speech. Due to pressure to reduce personnel costs, the number of students at other nautical schools has been declining for years. The desire to increasingly simplify manoeuvring and navigation using many electronic aids is reinforcing the negative spiral, according to Wever. Moreover, students who do complete their education do so with more theoretical knowledge than practical experience. Wever argued that this decline is due to the lack of challenge in work. In this respect, sea sailing would be a suitable alternative for many young people.

Astronavigation

At the EZS, astronavigation is still taught, and traditional navigation with map and compass, alongside working with modern electronics. The latest developments are not shunned, but always provided with a backup that still works even if the internet and electronics fail. Wever stated that “there is a strong desire among young people to be masters of your own destiny, and to make independent choices, leading to a challenging lifestyle in interplay with the elements, rather than the convenience of fossil fuel propulsion”.

Growth

Meanwhile, the EZS, still the only Nautical College in the world that trains officers for small and large sailing, is growing. Last season, 110 new students attended classes. Because they can spread their studies over several years, often more students than those newly enrolled take exams. This year, there were 173 in total. The pass rate is high at 81% and the drop-out rate is low at five students, compared to other courses. Moreover, students come from everywhere: the last batch included no fewer than 12 nationalities, spread over four continents.

Bringing in merchant shipping

Behind the scenes, Director Cosmo Wassenaar told that he also wants to bring back the addition for commercial shipping. In the first decades, it was also available in Enkhuizen, but when that part was transferred to the Ministry of Education, the EZS let it go. Now that the courses for motorised seafaring and sailing have more and more modules in common, an expansion towards commercial shipping is once again obvious.
Wassenaar is very confident of further growth. The corona period forced the school to record all lessons on video, so that they can also be followed remotely. This has given internationalisation and professionalisation an extra push.

Read this article in the Schuttevaer (for subscribers only).

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