‘Anchors Away’: Our 2024 Theme
Premise
Over the weekend, patrols will be able to form a pirate crew and together build their own pirate ship. With their ship mates they get to travel around to different islands in their pirate ship and complete activities and challenges.
Themed activities across the weekend
Below is the overall program for Venturers during the event:
Thursday Night (6pm – 9pm):
- All arrive at Sunbury
- Pack inspections
Friday Morning:
- Set sail for Blackwood Cove
- Rogaining Treasure Hunt
Friday Afternoon:
- Purchase your very own Ship
- Test your ship’s seaworthiness
- Design and hoist your Flag
Friday Dinner:
- Compete in My Galley Rules
- Celebratory Rave & Karaoke
Saturday:
- Sail around to different islands
- complete challenges at stunts
Saturday Evening:
- Enjoy a BBQ dinner
- Dress in your best pirate outfit!
- Then explore the township and visit different market stalls, in search of a treasure map!!
Sunday:
- Half day of mini stunts
- Final Parade and Awards
- Return to Sunbury
What are we asking stunt teams to assist with?
Stunt team members are asked to be onsite from Friday evening till Sunday afternoon.
Across the weekend you’d be expected to:
- On Saturday, run with your team a 15-20 minute stunt between 9am and 4pm
- On Saturday evening, during our Market activity assist manning stalls and trading / supervising little challenge with the Venturers
- On Sunday, run with your team a 5 minute activity
- On Sunday, staying for parade at 2pm before being able to depart
OAS Requirements
Each stunt will be based around some kind of initiative based or outdoor adventure skills activity; be it a first aid challenge, a navigation challenge, a rescue, night work, decoding or water incident, etc.
The stunt must be designed so as to occupy the entire team in a challenging activity for approximately 20 minutes, ideally with the capacity to cater for multiple teams at once. For each stunt site, we have given a suggestion of a suitable initiative challenge, taking into account what’s available at each site, and making sure there is a variety of stunt types.
Each Venturer Scout is required to participate fully in the planning and execution of each stunt activity.
Initiative in Venturer Scout language is a self-starting power, an ability to get up and go without being told what to do. It requires resourcefulness, working out what the problem is, problem solving, implementing and reviewing.
An Initiative activity is designed to enable Venturer Scouts to develop, practice and test their initiative and should be a definite test of planning, organising, self-reliance and determination.
Ways to theme your Stunt & Making it more of an Experience
There are lots of ways to add character to your stunt and make it a real experience as part of the overall theme: play theme music over speakers, Create props, have costumes that tie in to the story; all these will assist with the story and theming of your stunt.
Must-Have Equipment for each stunt:
- Garbage bin (We will provide bags)
- Undercover place for Venturer Packs to be placed, such as a shelter and a tarp on the ground
- Benches/chairs (for sitting)
- Table (for sign-in, scoring, etc. – a small pop-up gazebo is ideal as well)
- Clock or watch for telling time
- Water-Filling Station, at least 20L (for Venturers to fill water bottles, HHMT can refill when required)
- Esky to store your teams lunch (HHMT will supply ice if forcasted temp is above 20°C)
The Hoadley Hide team will provide each stunt with:
- Score sheet pads
- Stunt stickers to place in each team’s “passport” when they complete the stunt
- Garbage bags
- A radio (to be signed out from HQ each morning and signed back in each night)
Stunt Sites & Story Summaries
As stunt teams are running two stunts (15-20 minutes on Saturday, 5 minutes on Sunday) we have prepared some activity ideas to start you off. Please select 1 idea from each list, and let us know what you plan to do. If you want to change the idea or select an entirely new idea, contact us to check that it isnt too similar with another stunt already selected by another team.
Saturday Stunt Ideas
Pick any 1 per stunt team
- Cook up some pirate grub with activities like making Sea biscuits, crafting Damper, and decorating Biscuits.
- Get hands-on by rigging a training sailboat for an authentic pirate experience.
- Make some noise with cannon demonstrations and slingshot cannons for added excitement.
- Catapult building challenges.
- Test your seafaring skills with fishing and magnet fishing for hidden treasures.
- Practice precision by picking up blocks from outside a circle.
- Dare to walk the plank for a thrilling adventure.
- Construct a Davinci bridge to overcome obstacles.
- Navigate through a maze blindfolded with two eye patches as your only guide.
- Communicate like true pirates by directing patrols using only pirate language to lay out the deck of a ship.
- Signal to another ship with messages like warnings of danger or attempts to throw rivals off course.
- Engage in battleships by lobbing bean bags over a tarp to simulate cannon fire.
- Keep your loot safe with a secure your bag challenge.
- Embark on a treasure hunt using geocaching with GPS or compass bearings.
- Search for buried treasure while following hand-drawn maps.
- Solve the mystery of missing coins as the Pirate Union has lost five valuable pieces.
- Get creative by drawing your own treasure maps, incorporating landmarks for authenticity.
- Exchange treasure maps with other patrols to challenge their navigational skills.
- Consider adding a touch of authenticity with parrot-themed activities.
Test your wits with an escape from pirate jail or an immersive escape room experience.- Work together to raise anchors or sails.
Sunday Stunt Ideas
Pick any 1 per stunt team
- Train your eye for treasure with gold identification training.
- Dive into the Playcentre ball pit and collect as many balls of a single color as possible.
- Test your engineering skills with catapult challenges.
- Race against the clock in a time trial challenge.
- See how many items you can load onto a ship in just 2 minutes.
- Play a pirate-themed game of Taboo with pirate-related items.
- Take on the challenge of untying a really big knot.
- Use quick thinking to cover the holes in a pipe full of holes to move the water.
- Attempt the Wilf Kendal stunt from 2021.
- Exercise your brain with pirate-themed brain teasers.
- Race against time to find as many words as possible in a pirate-related word search in just 1 minute.
- Choose a word and find as many rhyming words as possible in a minute.
- Engage in a quick sword fight for an adrenaline rush.
- Consider jousting as a thrilling option, perhaps even on a plank for added challenge.
To select your stunt or to obtain more information on each of these stunts, including photos of the stunt sites, email
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