The outgoing captain of the Spirit of Bermuda sail training vessel has praised the programme, but warned it needed continual community support.

The tall ship was launched in 2006 by Bermuda Sloop Foundation to teach young Bermudians about teamwork.

Its skipper, Captain Chris Blake, will soon be returning to Australia with his wife, Kristen Pears, for health reasons at the end of the summer.

The Royal Gazette recently caught up with Captain Blake to get his retrospective on the programme.

"It is a very good programme and it has a lot of potential," said Captain Blake. "I think it is brilliant and it should keep on going forward as it is now.

"It needs support from the government. It is part of education and it is here to support the young people, especially those who can't afford it. It won't be able to operate unless someone comes to the party."

He said it takes $1 million a year to run the ship, which he thought was little in comparison to other Bermuda costs, such as that of sending students abroad for education.

Captain Blake has been with the Spirit of Bermuda since its last year of construction in Maine in 2005.

And in just a short time in operation, the programme is already gaining the attention of the world.

In 2007, the Spirit of Bermuda was named Sail Training Programme of the Year by the American Sail Training Foundation in 2007, and Captain Blake was named Sail Trainer of the year by Sail Training International.

"I got involved in the project through the grapevine, really," said Captain Blake. "I was doing some consulting work. Prior to that I was doing sail training."

He was previously captain of the Endeavour, an Australian replica of Captain James Cook's 1770 ship. It visited Bermuda in 1997.

"This is a very different programme compared to what I was previously involved in, because we are catering to younger people," said Captain Blake.

"I think it is a very good programme because it is not just sailing, but education as well. It is trying to integrate the two together.

"The students definitely seem to get quite a lot from it. We have feedback from schools and parents that they are very pleased with the results."

While with the Spirit of Bermuda Captain Blake said he had probably dealt with about 450 Bermudian kids, done seven runs from Bermuda to the United States and made about 30 local trips with middle school kids.

Although some people in the programme are from 16 to 25 years old, two thirds of them are ages 12 to 14.

Younger kids bring with them shorter attention spans, more tomfoolery, and more boisterousness. But what surprised Captain Blake was the level of materialism in Bermuda.

"The young people here have a lot of stuff, ipods, clothing, modern conveniences, more than I have seen before," he said. "They are much more things minded."

When students come on the ship they are quickly divested of all their electronic devices.

Captain Blake said that while they miss their cell phones and video games, what they really miss is sugar.

"We slow down the sugar intake," he said. "We don't give them sweets, lemonade and soda.

"They have water, juice and tea and other 'horrible healthy things. We don't give them frosted cereals and that sort of stuff.

"We give them lots of fruits and vegetables. On day two or day three some of them definitely get withdrawal symptoms from the decrease in sugar."

He said obesity is a problem worldwide and Bermudians should be concerned for the health of not only their kids, but adults as well.

"We do have some kids with behavioural problems, but 60 percent of the kids that come here are just normal kids," said Captain Blake. "We do take some who have problems, but they are ongoing."

He said many kids not only learned how to sail, but also how to take care of themselves.

"The other day two girls were washing dishes," said Captain Blake. "One turned to the other and said, 'I can't wash this, it's dirty'. She'd never washed a dish in her life. Some of them have never made their beds. If nothing else, it is a few days away from their mothers."

He said one advantage to running the Bermuda Sloop Foundation programme in a small community like Bermuda is that it is easier to keep track of the kids.

"In larger communities they come on the ship, you get them to a certain level and then they vanish," he said. "Invariably, they will go back into their ways because of peer pressure."

While with the Spirit of Bermuda Captain Blake said he had seen quite a few turnarounds.

"On our maiden voyage there was one boy who didn't want to be here," said Captain Blake. "He was sent by his mother.

"He wanted to go home. I told the mother she would be making a mistake if she sent him home. Now he is a watch leader, and he is leading other kids.

"Now he does a lot of work in the engine room, and is one of our best watch leaders. He has definitely turned the corner and is a more responsible person."

He said many of the students that took part in the programme came from single parent homes. He worried that some parents were trying to compensate by buying their child's love.

"The kids want to keep up with the Jones'," said Captain Blake. "The money has to come from somewhere so the parents take on multiple jobs."

And he said rather than being appreciative the kids actually disregarded what they had.

"We have a rule that if you leave an item of clothing laying around on the ship we will confiscate it," said Captain Blake. "We invariably end up with two big black trash bags filled with clothing.

"I have seen mothers going through the bag instead of the kid. The kid just walks off. Because they have so much they tend to take it for granted. That isn't all of our kids, but a fair number."

Captain Blake was born in Nigeria, but brought up in Uganda and Kenya. He went to school in England for a few years but did not like the climate. At the age of 15 he joined the Merchant Navy. He went on to the Merchant Marines and ended up with Princess Cruises.

"Then I wanted a change and I went into sail training," he said.

After returning to Australia Captain Blake, 62, plans to get a hip replacement.

"Old age and too much sport as a young man, I suppose," he said about his hip. "I would come back if we could find a decent job for my wife.

He said the challenge of the programme is not so much the kids, but convincing the general population of the programme's worth.

"The challenge is also getting the administration right," he said. "The challenge is to keep the programme fresh and going. But it is set up like clockwork at the moment."

He said schools were booked in until 2009, but the Bermuda Sloop Foundation needed the financial support of the community to keep going.

"We have booked the schools and now we have to find the money," he said.

"We can't afford to operate without being paid. Finances are a big thing in any organisation, really."

Captain Blake's last big trip will be in June when he takes the ship on a special trip to the Turks & Caicos Islands.

"There are still some spaces available for that," he said. "It is exploring a historical connection between Bermuda and the Turks & Caicos Islands.

"There are a lot of Bermudian families that went there. That is the main reason we are going down there. When we get there they will get tours around various significant sites.

"We will be seeing the salt flats, which is the main reason that Bermudians went down there in the first place. They got the salt and took it up to Labrador. There cod was salted and brought down for Sunday breakfast. There was no cod around Bermuda."

Captain Blake's replacement is still being selected.

For more information about the Bermuda Sloop Foundation and the Spirit of Bermuda go tohttp://www.bermudasloop.org/ .