Brazilian scouts' sailboat arrives in Rio de Janeiro

The 51-foot sailboat Lamia, seized in 2021 by Brazil’s Federal Police and donated this year by the Federal Court and the Brazilian Navy to the Brazilian scouts, docked this Wednesday (Mar. 1) in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, coming from Espírito Santo state.

On February 10, a team formed by four volunteer sailors from the Scout Movement sailed along the Brazilian coast from Natal, having as final destination the Port of Paranaguá, in the state o Paraná, which will be the sailboat's base. "They are all part of different Brazilian scout groups," Marco Antônio Bortoli, the entity's national coordinator of the Sea Mode, told Agência Brasil.

Sailing school

The vessel will serve as a school sailboat within the institution. "The purpose of the sailboat is to carry out pedagogical work, offering training for adults and young people. They will be able to spend from an overnight to a week training session on the boat. Officially, the sailboat will start operating as a school for adults in the second half of this year, and for young people in 2024.

The first action will be to expose the sailboat as a representative of the Scout Movement. The first event is scheduled for the end of this month, during Ocean Race, the largest transoceanic regatta in the world, which will take place in Itajaí, Santa Catarina state, between March and April.

Scout Movement

The scouting movement was founded in 1907, in England, by Baden-Powell and was introduced in Brazil in 1910. The movement relies on the collaboration of adults and values the participation of all social origins, races, and creeds, with the aim of contributing to the education of children, teenagers, and young people through a method that values education based on values, teamwork, and life in the open air.

Scouting today has more than 57 million members worldwide and is present in about 176 countries and territories. In Brazil, the scouts are divided into three modalities: basic, air, and sea. The sea modality exists since 1921 and is focused on aquatic activities, aiming to develop in young people a taste for nautical life, arts and marine techniques, sailing and motor sailing, nautical travel and transportation, fishing, study of oceanography, and nautical and underwater sports, among others.

The first event with the vessel is scheduled for the end of this month, during Ocean Race, the largest transoceanic regatta in the world, in Itajaí, Santa Catarina state.