Sailing project puts focus on youngsters

Pat Troy, a retired Royal Marines officer and former president of the Jersey Sea Cadets Association, wants to raise £10,000 to send ten children aged between 14 and 22 on the trip. Two youth workers would also join the group. But so far, despite writing to several businesses, Mr Troy has raised only £5,000 towards the cost of the trip with donations from Toc H and Rotary Club de la Manche. He said that Jersey-born explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell, the appeals director of the Trinity Sailing Trust, had approached him about the idea of sending Jersey youngsters on a week-long sailing trip in 2008.