Sail School Bahamas

That's the challenge! Having been there (a while ago), as well as working with hundreds of Scouts each year, I reckon it all comes down to speaking to them to find out what they are interested in along with a bit of education so they know all the exciting activities and interests that are out there. The next challenge is incorporating those activities with what the Pack can do with their resources. Keeping the interest alive is surely about teambuilding, reinforcing the value and importance of the skills and morals being imparted by Scouting & absorbed by the youngsters as well as making it all FUN.

We love speaking with Scouts on our trips and finding out all their friends back home are sitting inside playing video games all summer while they are learning to sail in the tropics. This provides great ammunition for them and the Adult Leaders to boost membership and trips like ours (or any other HA trips) are the best for retention!!!

btw - we always encourage Dads and Mums to get involved (on a temporary basis) in leadership for our trips.

Hi Brent,

Many thanks for your post. As it happens we were just in contact with Florida National High Adventure Sea Base and received clarification on this matter. We are extremely proud of our programs for Scouts, we would not knowingly mislead Scouts and as I noted regrettably this confusion arose due to our belief that it was a Council matter. We are taking steps to ensure that everyone visiting our website will be clearly aware that our sailing adventure programs, although outstanding in value and content, do not provide accreditation for 'Triple Crown'. We will also ensure that anyone inquiring about our trips is also made aware of this.

We only made a note of this on our website a few weeks ago as this information came to us in June from a BSA Scoutmaster who we regard as an extremely reliable and professional individual. He will be disappointed to discover that after all his inquiries within the BSA the advice he was given on this issue was incorrect although he will also appreciate your point that many Councils do have large staff numbers. He and his Troop had a wonderful time with and us did not choose our program for the purpose of accreditation.

As in any pursuit in life, erroneous beliefs can arise, however, I am sure you will agree that it is the manner and speed with which they are rectified that is important!

We are grateful to you for your input and wish you well in Scouting.

Dear 'ScoutMKE' & 'Eagle92' - these are postings by bonafide Scouts or Scout Leaders, for the benefit of other Scouts. They had an outstanding time sailing with us and simply want other Scouts to know what they experienced! Sail School Bahamas has not 'Spammed' anyone, we have been operating since 2005, have advertised with scouter.com since 2006 and have not posted anything here previously. Also, we see other private organizations featured here or referred to on a regular basis by Scouts for other Scouts. Although we are not nationally accredited our trips are run in line with BSA policy regarding leadership requirements and trip guidelines. We have taught hundreds and hundreds of Scouts to sail from across the US and as anyone in Scouting knows there are insufficient High Adventure options and as we have been told by numerous Scoutmasters and Adult Leaders that they wanted to do everything possible to spread awareness of our programs these postings provide folks in Scouting with an additional option if they need to book a specific week, are unsuccessful with the Lottery Draw or simply want to focus on actually learning how to sail. We have enough support from Scouts, Scoutmasters and Scout Councils throughout the US without having to resort to spamming, these postings are by BSA Scouts who have actually sailed with us and know what they are talking about - why don't you contact them! They probably thought this was a website/forum for Scouts to help other Scouts with information, ideas and feedback.

We previously spent 3yrs working with BSA High Adventure Bahamas SeaBase and continued to help them out with a trip this year when they needed our support to avoid letting down Scout Troop 20 from Birmingham, AL as the SeaBase boat was inoperable. As this is not a 'BSA only' site but as stated below 'This is a private community provided by SCOUTER Network and reserved for Scouting related discussions' we feel your comments are unfair and unfounded and we are certain the 'Scouts' who posted these comments will agree!

Surely, since SeaBase in the Bahamas is consistently fully booked, more Scouts sailing and experiencing a professionally run HA trip in line with BSA policy is a good thing for Scouting, good for retention and good for increasing membership...? Have you even seen the website or read the testimonials?

Regarding Facebook, we receive postings from BSA 2010, Venturing, Double HH Ranch, and numerous Scout Councils etc, on a regular basis. 'We' fully support the BSA and Scouting in general, that is why we focus on working with Scouts! You may not be aware but Facebook offers a mutually advantageous reciprocity that is good for Scouting, otherwise they would prevent non-BSA organizations from posting on their own walls.

Finally, we would not have noted that our trips would count towards the 'Triple Crown' if that was untrue - a GA Troop who sailed with us this summer bothered to actually check with their Council and were told that as far as they were concerned it was a local Scout Council decision and they would accredit their trip, so, if that information is incorrect surely your time would be better spent speaking with them or your local Scout Council instead of us.

In order to be fair, impartial and objective we'll highlight this issue to everyone who has sailed with us, if they're not already registered here they can register as new members (which is surely a good thing for scouter.com too!) so they can let other Scouts know what they think and everyone else reading this topic can make up their own minds.

Thanks for your interest in our programs.

A hearty hello to you all out there,

My fiancee and I hail from Scotland and since 2003 we have spent our time forming a company to deliver a range of exciting and challenging sailing adventure programs specifically for U.S. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Venture Crews and Sea/Scuba Scouts in the beautiful and safe northern Bahamas. We currently spend most of our year in the Bahamas, we live in the US for 6-8wks then return to Scotland for a few months around Christmas.

We worked with Bahamas High Adventure Sea Base for several years and during this period we both felt that with a healthy apparent demand for aquatic activities there was room to improve this service in terms of offering significantly more structure and conformity between sailboats in our fleet, less crowding onboard, more choice, better menus, improved feedback and quality control along with lower prices for our crews. We offer a syllabus based range of adventure courses and focus strongly on constantly improving the quality of our instruction, increasing crew satisfaction and expanding program diversity.

We have loved the time we have spent in our own sailboat working with hundreds of young men and women from across the entire United States and we have met so many fantastic scouting leaders who devote their time to helping these young adults mature into worthwhile, responsible contributors to the world in which we live.

We look forward to seeing old friends again, meeting more of you personally in the coming years and to the possibility of encouraging some of you to come sailing with our Captains and sailboats in the Sea of Abaco.

To find out about our trips, our organization or about working with us please get in touch by email.

Yours in Scouting,

Brian and Catherine

Hi, we need to find one good travel agency that would like to feature on our website. We run a range of sailing adventure programs exclusively for Boy Scouts, Venture Scouts, Sea and Scuba Scouts in the northern Bahamas and if we can refer our crews to a reputable travel agency it would be a big help to the folks that have to make more complex travel arrangements getting to and from the Bahamas. We have crews coming from as far away as California, Texas and Nebraska so an agency that can work in most States would be preferable.

Please let us know if you can recommend an agency that you know do a good job for small sized groups and seem to offer good value for money?

Thanks,

Brian

there,

We would like to feature a good Travel Agency on our website. We run a range of sailing adventure programs specifically for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Venture Crews and Sea/Scuba Scouts in the beautiful northern Bahamas and we have experienced Scouts traveling from as far afield as Nebraska and Maine as well as Texas and even California to take part in our trips. It is critical that the Travel Agency must have experience of working with small to medium sized groups!

Do any of you out there have a great little travel company that you would be proud to recommend?

Any referrals or other ideas will be welcome.

Thanks.

Brian