Hot on the heels of the 36th America's Cup held in Auckland over the last few weeks, our Creative Director's youngest son, Felix, set sail on his own high seas adventure.
The Spirit of Adventure Trust is a not-for-profit organisation empowering young New Zealanders to reach their full potential through the challenge of the sea. The Trust has been running programmes for young people since the early 1970's when well-known Auckland businessman and keen sailor, Lou Fisher, was looking for his next big project. With his love of the sea and his passion for supporting young people through the community, namely as the chair of the appeal trust of the Auckland Surf-Life Saving Association, Lou developed the concept of turning his recently purchased vintage 73-ft ketchmatra sailing schooner into a vessel for adventure for the youth of New Zealand.
The original Spirit of Adventure schooner was retired in 1997 and her replacement, the beautiful Spirit of New Zealand has since spent around 340 days at sea annually giving the youth of New Zealand the opportunity to build courage, unlock their potential and make lifelong friends. The Spirit is about overcoming ALL obstacles. It was an opportunity that we here at Cavalry were excited to part of in helping Felix make the March 2021 voyage.
Felix is a year 11 at Rangitoto College in Auckland and is also a fully qualified surf-life saver at Mairangi Bay Surf Club. On Sunday 21 March Felix and 9 other Rangitoto College students as well a number of other 12-15 years olds from around Auckland and New Zealand loaded up from Princes Wharf for an adventure that can only be described as life-changing. The group of teenagers will sail around the Hauraki Gulf, out as far as the open ocean side of Great Barrier Island for the 5 Day Spirit Torophy Adventure. Felix was one of the 10 strong team from Rangitoto competing for the coveted Spirit Trophy.
He'll enjoy a learning experience like no other that guarantees challenge, adventure, creativity and reward. Activities in the programme include ship-handling, teamwork, problem-solving, debating, and water sports (in and on the water). Teams also go ashore and complete tasks against each other and enjoy competitive games that involve ingenuity, leadership and fun.
The Cavalry team was delighted to support Felix and the rest of Rangitoto team and wish them the best of luck, and hope, just like our America's Cup team New Zealand, that they can bring the trophy home!