Sailing charity on crest of wave as unemployed plot new course

Mr Cameron was opposition leader and himself hoping for a better job when he called NHS Hull’s decision to buy a £500,000 yacht for the CatZero project “completely crazy”.

But that boat has been central to the success of a scheme that has now changed the lives of hundreds of young people.

A total of 416 people from Hull aged between 16 and 18 who were not in employment, education or training (so-called NEETs) have taken part in the CatZero Wilberforce Youth Development programme over the last three years, and of those, 285 – nearly 70 per cent – have gained the confidence and skills to re-enter education, join training courses, or get a job.

Conservative estimates are that each NEET will cost the public purse £56,000 on average over the course of their lifetime in benefit payments, healthcare, criminal justice costs and lost tax revenue, not to mention the social cost, leading to CatZero’s bouyant mood at an event to celebrate its initial success.

City MP Alan Johnson, who along with sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is a patron of the charity, joked about the negative publicity surrounding the yacht purchase and recalled civil servants’ unease at him being associated with it when he was Health Secretary. He said: “They suggested I stay well clear of this so as a result I became a patron.”

Mr Johnson called the programme a “truly life-changing experience” and said he would invite Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to see it in action.

He said: “I want Iain Duncan Smith to come here; he’s not in my political party but he’s had a Damascene conversion on this and if I can get Iain to come and see this it will be a tremendous boost and the articles will be completely complimentary.”

The audience also heard from some of the recruits who took part, such as Amy Adams, 18, who was unemployed when she joined but so impressed her tutor on a first-aid course that he took her on as his assistant. She went on to land a job with a private ambulance service and now wants to go into nursing.

“It’s really changed my life,” she said. “They’re like a second family and they’ve really helped me. I don’t know what I’d be without CatZero.”

Chris Toyon, 22, had been unemployed for six months, but through the programme got a three-day work placement at city telecoms firm KC, where he has now got a full-time job as a customer service adviser.

And there are others who simply caught the sailing bug.

Sam Hodgkinson, 18, was also out of work and unsure where his life was heading when he joined CatZero. He was inspired to taking a sailing apprenticeship and is now close to qualifying as a commercially-endorsed ocean yachtmaster.

He was on board when the yacht took part in the Fastnet race and took the helm when she crossed the finish line - a moment when there was “not a dry eye on the boat”, according to CatZero chairman Jim Dick.

The charity is now extending the scheme to work with 18 to 24-year-olds and is in discussions about setting up a programme in Grimsby, while pilot schemes are due to start in the East Riding and Sheffield next month.

Mr Dick said: “This has been a highly innovative aproach to addressing a deep-seated problem. We were told at the outset that we would struggle to engage with young people who have proven so hard to reach, let alone motivate so many of them to go into education, training or employment, but we have exceeded expectations and all the challenging targets set for positive outcomes.

“We always believed in the programme’s potential to change lives.”