CANSAIL CHARITABLE TRUST

Welcome aboard!

CanSail, a member of the worldwide Sail Training fraternity, is dedicated to the personal development of children and young adults through the challenge of crewing a Small Ship.

Operating from October to April each year, CanSail offers groups of 20-25 youngsters a three-hour Sail Training experience in the stunning waters of Banks Peninsula, New Zealand. We sail in Lyttelton Harbour prior to Christmas, and Akaroa Harbour after the New Year.

Adult leaders and parent supporters are welcome to join your group which will be under the expert care of our professional skipper and volunteer crew. The maximum number of people you may bring on board is 30.

CanSail is supported largely by our funding partners. Through their generosity, 80% of your $500 trip is sponsored. We invite schools and youth groups to contribute $120, which works out at less than $5 per person for a group of 25. However, no group is prevented from sailing by economic hardship.

Bookings are essential. CanSail's Small Ship, STV Fox II, is available for daily sailings: 9:00am-12:00 noon and 12:30-3:15pm. Evening voyages can be arranged from 4:00pm onwards. We have an on-board barbecue which can be reserved on evening trips - you bring the sausages, sauce and serviettes! Sailing times are more flexible for trips during the weekend. You're welcome to book more than one CanSail trip if necesssary to accommodate your numbers.

If you have time to make a day of it, CanSail offers the Quail Island Experience: half a day sailing, half a day on the island. A volcanic outcrop in the middle of Lyttelton Harbour, Quail Island is a one-time farm, a former leper colony and the C20th quarantine station for Captain Scott's Antarctic-bound dogs and ponies. Today, the island has a fine swimming beach, crumbling shipwrecks, volcanic cliffs and an easy, 90-minute round-island trail. The Quail Island Experience is ideal if you have two sailing groups: once we have ferried half your party to the island, the rest spend the morning sailing. At lunchtime, we swap the groups at the Quail Island jetty. At the end of the day, the afternoon crew is dropped at Lyttelton before the island group is collected. Quail Island Experience trips can only be booked Thursdays - Sundays.

Single groups may do the Quail Island Experience if they can be matched with a second group. Extra time is required for the Quail Island Experience which runs 8:30am - 4:00pm on Thursdays and Fridays only. There is no extra cost: each trip is $120. So, if you have two groups doing the Quail Island Experience, swapping at the island at lunchtime, the cost is $120 each, ie: $240 in total.

Want to come aboard? Contact us at info@CanSail.co.nz or phone us on (03) 379.9202.