The voyage is a Youth Exchange project being promoted by Sail Training Ireland for Youth Development (STIYD) in partnership with Ocean Youth Trust Ireland (OYTI), Merseyside Adventure Sailing Trust (MAST). It involves 45 young people and three to four leaders. The main activity will take place over a 8 day period aboard a Tallship. 15 of these young people will come from Northern Ireland, 15 from the Republic of Ireland, 15 from England. The focus of Sail Training in general is on the development of life-skills. The medium for this is the challenge inherent to voyaging at sea on a tallship and working as part of a crew. The main theme of the project is "Education through sports and outdoor activities". The project will visit two cities- Belfast and Dublin.The project will have two focuses:Firstly it will try to foster social cohesion between the 3 different areas. Areas of commonalty will be explored, and an understanding and appreciation for each others backgrounds will develop. Secondly the project will look at the personal development of the young participants. The core personal development objectives will include: Leadership, self awareness, goal setting. We will use experiential education as the method in delivering these objectives.The Association for Experiential Education regards experiential education as "a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities."Our approach to this will see us bringing the young participants together before the project to frame and frontload them with what they should expect onboard. This will take place in the three groups separately using a pre-designed set of instructions. Icebreakers can be used to help the group to bond, which will be essential for the voyage. Expectations can also be addressed through a group contract. This will ensure a greater result from the project, and the participants will realize that this isn't just a "leisurely voyage". While onboard there will be workshops designated for certain times. In lasts years exchange it was found very difficult to organise workshops throughout the voyage element of the project. However it will be timetabled this year during port visits when it is feasible. Throughout the project the group works in three different "Watch Groups" working the ship. Each watchleader will have instructions on daily workshops aims and methods to carry out during their time on duty. Each workshop will deal with one of the objectives (leadership, goal setting, and self-awareness). The participants will be given a chance to reflect on this and implement it in their daily routine. Certain areas maybe revisited if needs be. The key here is reflection and implementation of the skills obtained, and the onus is on the participants learning for themselves rather then being given all the answers.After the project there will be a follow up workshop. This will help with the transfer of the skills that they would of learned on board, back into there normal lives (As an 8 day voyage on a tall ship is very different from 8 days at home, so their experiences need to be made relevant). The area of "transfer" is essential in cementing the experience. The medium for the development of these soft skills will take place during the voyage. As the participants will be involved in all aspects of sailing the ship as a team. This includes, hoisting and setting sails, steering, keeping watch at all hours, navigating, keeping the log, cooking, cleaning and serving and scrubbing the deck etc. Naturally enough there will be challenges and tensions arising during the voyage, which will hopefully lead to learning opportunities discussed above.