We are an international experiential education organization. Atlantic Challenge programs practice, share, and encourage the rise of the skills of the sea including boat building, sailing, rowing, and seamanship. Its activities bring youth together with the intent of fostering cultural and global understanding, personal development through challenge, and education about our rich maritime heritage.
The "roots" of the Atlantic Challenge movement come from the teachings of Kurt Hahn, one of the twentieth century’s greatest educators. Hahn firmly believed in the value of experiential education and that self discovery comes through challenge. The joint founders of Atlantic Challenge, Lance Lee of the USA, and Bernard Cadoret from France, selected a ship’s longboat from the 18th century as the primary vehicle for communications for the program.
The Challenge was begun in the belief that youth and the nations they represent gain immeasurably from direct, exhilarating experience, immersion in skilled enterprise, and, most of all, contact with their peers from other cultures through such experience and skill. The world of small boats lends itself to the training of contemporary youth in teamwork, leadership, and responsibility. Through the sharing of this experience, Atlantic Challenge aims to foster international understanding, trust, cooperation, collective pride, and amitié; the cross cultural ties of friendship.
The simple elegance of 18th century ship's boats in appearance, rig, equipment, and cost led to their selection in 1984 as the focus of Atlantic Challenge. This project, posing "Contests of Seamanship as Ambassadors," involves the youth of many nations. It also involves "living history" and direct experience.
These craft were appropriately small, demanding of teamwork, technique, leadership and responsibility, and wonderfully versatile. They were once used to connect ship with ship and with shore, for communications, training, lightering, fishing and provisioning expeditions, to set and retrieve anchors, for calm weather towage of the mother ship, as lifeboats, and often, to develop the captain's "crew within a crew," a select handful with a skilled and diplomatic cox'n who achieved a harmonious and proud team for ceremonial and practical purposes. Much of that diverse usage is being adapted today to the training of contemporary youth in teamwork, leadership, responsibility, and pride.
The first contests of Seamanship were held in New York Harbour during July 1986. The project was inspired by Lance Lee’s Apprenticeshop in Rockport Maine. The US invited France to come to New York on the occasion of the Centennial of that nation's gift of the Statue of Liberty. To host France, the Americans requested help from Brittany in the selection of an appropriately elegant French working watercraft, her design, and rig. Bernard Cadoret posed three designs and the Atlantic Challenge gig was chosen from one of the three. This gig is a replica of the oldest surviving vessel in the French Navy. Two matched craft, Liberté and Egalité, were launched in January and May of '86 and taken to New York. Participants included youth from Douarnenez and Brest, France; Hull and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Key West, Florida.
Believing that while the past is widely celebrated by monuments, the future is best served by affording youth skills, the US posed a Contest of Seamanship in these boats--two days of intensive participation before many thousands standing in Battery Park, witnessing the Contest with the Statue of Liberty in the background. The Schooner "Ernestina" and the towns of Rockport, Maine (Apprenticeshop) and Hull, Massachusetts (the Hull Lifesaving Museum) hosted 30 French crew members for some ten days.
The enthusiastic response to the successful program in New York resulted in France challenging the United States to visit them in 1988 on the Brittany seacoast. Plans were considered to develop paired gigs on the west coast of Europe and the East Coast of the United States, thereby making future contests on either continent, between crews of many communities possible. While ambitious, this scheme was realized when the youth of the United States presented the newly built (Apprenticeshop) gig Amité to the youth of France, handsomely sponsored by AT&T.
The contest took place during the Festival of '88 in Douarnenez where, to extend this experience as well as our Atlantic Challenge concept, Ireland (Bantry Bay) and Denmark (The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde), joined, as crews of "Fraternité (Breton-built) and Amité.
The Danes emerged with the most points in ’98 and also offered to host the program in 1990. The AC ‘90 program invited a Russian crew in the belief that it is on the grassroots level that the Western nations can best serve perestroika through the establishment of trust and friendship among youth of many nations. When the Russian crew expressed concern about not being as well-trained and competent as the other crews, we urged them: "Come as you are. We'll share our skills; we'll help to train you. Winning is not the issue”. Tinna Damgard-Sorensen, Director of the Viking Ship Museum of Roskilde, Denmark, carried this proposal to St. Petersburg. There the Sea History Club, Shtandart, joined Norway, Ireland, France, Denmark, and the United States in the 1990 contests.
T he Challenge in '90 saw the finest contests to that time and an international resolution which has proven enduring. The Contests, tightly and handsomely run, took place before a crowd of as much as a thousand and was matched by a celebration of Viking Age culture. The Contest was memorable for a singular accident; the Norwegians broke their mainmast, far out in the fjørd, and elected to row 'home', - no small distance. Many hundreds lined the docks and shoreline, silent and clapping rhythmically. On the completion of the week of fun and contests, Jan Madsen, director of the museum, as host, invited us, one representative from each country, to gather 'round a table. He asked two questions, "Is this Contest of Seamanship working for all of you?" After a unanimous "Yes" he asked, "Shall we then form an organization to be known as the Atlantic Challenge?" The answer being yes, we appointed officers, planned the next gathering in France and adjourned.
In 1992, Canada and the United Kingdom joined the Atlantic Challenge program which was hosted in the twin communities of Brest and Douarnenez, France.
In 1994, Canada hosted the program. This was the first time AC had moved from the sea to a “freshwater location” on the shores of Georgian Bay at Discovery Harbour in Midland – Penetanguishene Ontario. Since Norway had yet to complete the construction of a gig, she was invited to do so prior to resuming participation at the international events. This year however, there was considerable interest from other nations to send representatives to the program. Canada agreed to host and train an international crew from these countries. The International crew sailed under the flag of the United Nations with participants from Puerto Rico, Tasmania, Japan, Mexico, Egypt, Russia and Canada. All other member nations attended with the prize for most creative transportation method to arrive at the program awarded to Russia. The youth from St. Petersburg and their gig arrived on Canada’s East coast aboard a Russian fishing vessel after spending a month at sea working on their gig and assisting with the shipboard daily routines.
In 1996, Ireland hosted the international program in Bantry Bay. The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, opened the program on the shores of the very bay where 200 years earlier the original gig had been captured. Again an international crew was welcomed. This time they were trained in Dublin by the newest members of the organization at Ringsend, Dublin.
In 1998, Denmark again hosted the festivities at the newly expanded Viking Ship Museum. You will find a description of the contests as developed by the Danes for ’98 in this manual.
During the summer of 2000, Atlantic Challenge program was hosted by our friends in Douarnenez, France. It was part of a large maritime heritage festival hosted in the twin cities of Brest and Douarnenez. The AC program was totally held in Douarnenez. At the same time, Le Défi Jeunes Marins 2000 took place, the result of a challenge by Le Chasse Marée for communities across France and Europe to build replicas of the original Bantry gig and develop seamanship programs for youth. Boats from across Europe accepted the challenge and boats from many regions of France, Switzerland, and Belgium participated.
In 2002, WoodenBoat magazine and the Atlantic Challenge Foundation USA hosted the international contests during the International Festival of Seamanship and Boatbuilding in Rockland, Maine.
2004 saw the 10th contest hosted by the United Kingdom in Fishguard-Goodwick, Wales. This year 12 boats participated from 11 countries throughout the world. This area of Wales once saw these gigs before in 1797 when the French landed here from Canmaret in February. A Maritime Heritage Festival also took place during the Contest of Seamanship.
For the latest updates and news, we invite you to visit the Atlantic Challenge International website www.atlanticchallenge.org. The international gathering hosted every two years represents the culmination of activities over the previous 24 months for each organization. These activities vary considerably from nation to nation and group to group with details outlined at each organization’s web site.
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