Stan was our treasurer.
Cockney Spirit was a 40 foot ketch sleeping 12 & always aimed at East End teens.
Adventure Development Relationships Purpose at sea in a sailing group room. .
Cockney Spirit was a concrete boat built by local youths under the guidance of two skilled men.
At one of our regular management meetings the chairman, me, asked everyone a question::
When did you become an adult?
Stan opened saying he lied to join the Royal Navy at 15.
He didn’t become an adult.
He went to war on Destroyer.
He didn’t become an adult.
He saw action at sea & death.
He didn’t become an adult.
One night towards the end of the war
they attacked & sunk a German eBoat in the English Channel.
He didn’t become an adult.
They then swept the sea to look for any human survivors.
He didn’t become an adult.
Then they saw a Royal Ensign in the water.
They had sunk a British ship.
At that moment Stan said::
“I became an adult. “
BHP
MORE ON OUR Concrete Boat::
Back in the early eighties,
we built a boat out of concrete.
A 40 foot ketch, able to sail out to sea
with a group of Inner City kids on board.
We called it 'Cockney Spirit'.
We sailed out of the East End
with some Spiritual backup.
It was the Thatcher years
massive unemployment in
the East End and nationwide.
A Government grant
(YOP = Youth Employment Scheme)
helped us to employ unskilled
young humans and a couple of
skilled local men and a boat builder.
The boat was shaped out of wire
and steel rods
then it was plastered in
seagoing cement -
(steel floats doesn't it?
So does concrete.)
BHP
