Student to investigate psyche of travellers on long sea voyages

Olomouc, North Moravia, March 13 (CTK) - Simon Pelikan, Czech student of recreology, will test psychical processes of people in extreme conditions during an ocean trip on a historical ship as from later this month, which is a joint project of Olomouc university and Dutch sailors, experts involved have told CTK.

The voyage across the Atlantic will end in South Africa.

Pelikan will use the planned test's results in his dissertation as a student of the recreology department of the Palacky University's Faculty of Physical Culture.

Pelikan, former world junior canoeing champion, said he expects the trip on a sailing ship produced in 1918 and together with people he has never met before to be demanding.

"I like facing such challenges," he said.

Pelikan has already gained some experience as a member of Czech recreologists' expedition with the Dutch ship Elegant crossing the North Sea.

Michal Kalman, the new project's organiser from the recreology department, said Pelikan's research will focus on adaptation changes in psychical, social and spiritual processes that occur in a man isolated within a closed group for a period of 30 to 50 days.

The limited communication with the world and restricted access to aid will also play a role.

The research is expected to help better understand people's capability of psychical and social adaptation, Kalman said.

The Oosterschelde historical ship set off on a voyage around the world last December.

Pelikan will take part in the first phase of the trans-ocean research trip that will start in Santos, Brazil, on March 31 and will be bound for Cape Town, South Africa.

The second phase, leading from Mauritius to Perth, Australia, will include another Czech researcher, Peter Tavel from the Olomouc university's Institute of Social Health.

Ivo Jirasek, the Faculty of Physical Culture vice-dean, will replace him in the final stage from Auckland, New Zealand, to the Falklands, close to Argentina's Atlantic coast.

The trans-ocean voyage is a joint research project of the Olomouc university, the Dutch Oosterschelde Foundation and other partners. Its direct costs are estimated at the equivalent of half a million crowns.

($1=19.656 crowns)