Arctic Explorer shares adventures in aid of youth charity
by Matthew Moore 9 Apr 2013 14:44 BST
7pm, 18 April 2013
Arctic explorer David Scott Cowper is raising funds for OYT North © David S Cowper
Round-the–world yachtsman is raising funds for Ocean Youth Trust
North East explorer and round-the-world yachtsman David Scott Cowper is to share stories of his adventures to raise funds for a Tyneside based youth development charity.
Mr. Cowper, 70, a chartered surveyor from Newcastle, was the first man to sail solo around the world in both directions.
He has successfully circumnavigated the world seven times in total and is regarded by many in the yachting world as the greatest living single handed navigator.
In 1990, he became the first man to sail singlehanded around the world via the Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans – a journey that took four years and two months.
He is raising funds for Ocean Youth Trust North, the North of England's leading sail training and youth development charity.
He will deliver an illustrated talk at HMS Calliope, on South Shore Road, Gateshead at 7pm on Thursday April 18.
Entitled Arctic to Antartic aboard Polar Bound, he will recount the thrills and dangers of sailing from pole to pole in a motor boat.
He will relive his journey, dodging icebergs and sailing through thick fog, during a voyage from Whitehaven in Cumbria, to the Antarctic, via the Arctic. He arrived back in the North East in November last year.
Tickets are £10 and all proceeds are in aid of OYT North.
OYT North is a Tyneside based sail training and youth development charity and provides personal development opportunities for young people aged 12-25 through Adventure under Sail expeditions aboard its yacht James Cook.
Steve Lennon, general manager of OYT North, said: "David Scott Cowper's story is an inspirational example as to what can be achieved when you dedicate yourself to a goal and work tirelessly to make it happen.
We are extremely grateful that David is supporting our work teaching life skills to young people through adventure under sail and we'd urge anyone with a spirit of adventure to come and hear him speak."
OYT North celebrated the 25th anniversary of the launch of its yacht James Cook last year.
Over a quarter of a century, it has welcomed more than 10,000 young people aboard including groups with special educational needs, visual impairment, young offenders, schools, colleges, Scouts and Guides and young people enrolled on the National Citizen Service.
Ocean Youth Trust North and James Cook completed a circumnavigation of the world in 1997 crewed by young people, many of whom had never sailed before.
For more about OYTN, visit www.oytnorth.org.uk