Picton Castle Thread

[TimH]

I was dreaming of actually taking a year and going on a Picton Castle voyage last night. I looked that the we site just now and they have a 40 yr old cap on age?

Now I feel old.

[TimH]

Consider the Cost of Other
Hard-work Adventures of a Lifetime

Mount Everest Climb

To climb Mount Everest with the aid of an experienced guide and Sherpas, but with no guarantee of a summit, costs over $60,000, with your actual time on the mountain being two and a half months. To do it yourself without a guide or Sherpas will still cost you $30,000. To spend a month and a half climbing with a guide just in the Khumbu Icefall (the first section of climbing above Everest base camp) will run you $10,000.
Mount Kilamanjaro Climb

If climbing Mount Kilimanjaro—the highest mountain in Africa—is a more realistic dream for you, you can expect to pay at least $1,000 for the six days it will take you to climb up and back.
National Outdoor Leadership School

To spend a semester at the National Outdoor Leadership School, learning skills in sailing, climbing, trekking or paddling, starts at $10,000 for two and a half months.
And these adventures all take place in one geographic area; Picton Castle will visit at least 20 countries on four continents as we sail the Atlantic.
Around the World by Plane

Consider too, that while a 'round the world airplane ticket will take you to all the places we visit, it will cost at least $8,000 and that's only for the airfare. You would still have to pay for food, lodging, customs fees and sundry items.
Everything's Included on your Voyage

All that's included in your Picton Castle trainee fees—your bunk and board, your share of the cost of running and maintaining the ship, port fees and entry fees for the countries we visit, plus, all instruction and training.
Just one week at an approved sailing school learning to sail a small boat will cost you $1,000. We teach you square-rig sailing, sail making, rigging, navigation and a host of other skills, those that are exclusively marine and those that easily transfer ashore.

[Covite]

I was dreaming of actually taking a year and going on a Picton Castle voyage last night. I looked that the we site just now and they have a 40 yr old cap on age?

Now I feel old.

Took a look at the PC website. Under the section titled:

"On Our World Voyages and Longer Trips" (www.picton-castle.com/train)

it says "We prefer trainees under age 40, though we accept older persons who are healthy and fit."

Doesn't sound like an absolute ban on those over 40. Don't know how they actually apply it, though one of the "trainee testimonials" listed the trainee's age as 59. If you're interested, it never hurts to ask!

[TimH]

True. It doesnt say it, but Ill bet they prefer female trainees under 25 even more :)

[Gary Bergman]

Aye, for Dan's mid voyage 'orgies'....(his brag, not my invention)

[TimH]

Aye, for Dan's mid voyage 'orgies'....(his brag, not my invention)

Are you serious?

[Gary Bergman]

Absolutely serious. He's bragged that point up to almost every volunteer we've trained in the last two ASTA Tallship Challenges.......The last time was in Port Hawksbury, before that, Halifax, before that, Cleveland..A pattern, it seems to me..fishing for potential candidates

[TimH]

Well I guess with a boatload of young women the temptation would be there :)

Dont know if Id go bragging about it though...seems kind of weird.

[Gary Bergman]

Seems kind of wierd??..Guess ya ain't met Dan....:) I may be reaching for straws, but most sail training orgs find preying on trainees unacceptable conduct...

[TimH]

Just ordered a book

"Fair wind and plenty of it"

about a guys voyage on the boat. Should be interesting


http://www.rigelcrockett.com/fairwind/index.htm

[Old Sailor]

I handled the main sheet on the schooner Zodiac at age 63.
Old Sailor

[Gary Bergman]

Attay boy, mate!..Actually, I'm a fairly firm believer in what happens aboard stays aboard, so I'll bail on this topic, as Picton Castle will most likely outlive yet another owner operator...My conscience just hopes it wasn't a mid ocean orgy in progress when Laura Gainey disappeared....

[Mad Scientist]

Nope, probably wasn't a mid-ocean orgy.

My opinion about 'political correctness' in the Canadian judicial system leads me to believe that 'Picton Castle' will be forced out of Canada, to operate from someplace that doesn't have a Gov't which believes that it can save everybody from every possible peril...
This would have gotten a lot less 'mileage' if the young lady had not been the daughter of a Canadian hockey icon - Bob Gainey of my beloved Habs (Montreal Candiens).
Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong on both counts...

Tom

[soba]

The Picton Castle is already registered in the Cook Islands. Thankfully, shipboard operations aren't affected by much of the litigation-fuelled over-pretective tendencies of today's Canadian legislation-happy municipal and provincial bureaucrats.

Or so I hear.

SALTS certainly seems to have their arms partially restrained. So, point taken, Tom.

[Dan McCosh]

I was talking to the captain on the schooner Highlander Sea the other day, and he said he had some volunteers in there '70s and even '80s. He said he was working on a Barkentine off Cape Horn a few years ago, and one guy was in his 80s. The guy had done Everest, etc. "I wasn't about to tell him he couldn't go up in the rigging," he said. "It was probably the way he wanted to go anyway."

[TimH]

splat :)