A screenshot of the Aegean's SPOT Messenger feed, last updated Saturday, Apr 28th at 1:36 a.m., right on North Coronado Island

UPDATE:  The Latitude 38 blog reports that other boats in the race reported have a close encounter with a large ship around the time and in the same vacinity.

Michael Lawler, a crewmember aboard the Newport Beach-based Choate 48 Amante, reports having a close encounter with a freighter in the same vicinity and time as Aegean‘s tracker stopped working. “We were farther offshore, about 10-12 miles west of the Coronados,” says Lawler. “Around 1:30 a.m., I went on watch and saw a freighter bearing down on us at what was probably 20 knots. His range lights were lined up and I could see both red and green bow lights. I didn’t have time to get on the radio, so I grabbed my two million-candlepower spotlight and aimed it at the ship. That caught his attention and he took a hard left turn to take our stern. He passed about 1/4 mile behind us.” Lawler, who circumnavigated aboard his North Wind 47 Traveller, says the wind was light, the seas were a little lumpy, and visibility was good.

However, a recently discovered feed of the Aegean’s SPOT Messenger showing the satellite track of the vessel (above), last updated at approximately 1:36 a.m., with the vessel directly on top of North Coronado Island, suggesting the vessel may have broken up on the rocks of the island.

This chart shows the search area for the sailing vessel Aegean. U.S. Coast Guard graphic (click for high res)

Original: At least three sailors competing in a yacht race from Newport Beach, CA to Ensenada, Mexico have been killed and one still remains missing after an apparent collision with a large cargo ship.

Newport Ocean Sailing Association (NOSA), host of the N2E annual regatta, said that the sailboat Aegean, a Hunter 376 representing the Little Ships Fleet club, vanished from the race’s online tracking system at approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday.  Hours later, vessels in the area of the Coronado Islands reported finding debris in the water, which prompted the launch of a Coast Guard search leading to the discovery of the wreckage, including the rear transom with the vessel’s name on it.

By mid afternoon, the bodies of three crewmembers and loads of badly beaten debris had been recovered.  The search for the fourth crewmember continued Sunday, but was called off Sunday afternoon by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, but initial reports indicate that the incident appears to be the result of collision with a much larger ship that did not see or even likely know of the collision.

“It was real obvious it had been hit just because the debris was so small,” a searcher told the Pasadena Star-News. The yacht looked like it “had gone through a blender.”

On Monday, it was revealed that the sailbot did not issue a distress signal or mayday.

A crew list was not immediately available, nor was it first known how many other crew may have been on the boat, but could have been sailed by five or more persons, said NOSA in a statement

The race started off Newport Beach in mid-day Friday and many boats finished in Ensenada Saturday, with the last ones due in Sunday. Weather conditions were lighter than normal at the time and place of the incident, with boats reporting winds of only 1 or 2 knots.

The incident marks the first fatalities in the 65-year history of the race, which saw 213 boats enter this year.

The crew of the Hunter 376 Aegean at Friday's start to the Newport to Ensenada Race. © 2012 Susan Hoffman via Latitude 38 blog

The Southern Ocean is the most challenging place on earth to sail in and for the past quarter century, incredible video gathered from Volvo Ocean and past Whitbread Races through the Roaring 40s and Furious 50s have been the inspiration for millions of sailors, including me.

CAMPER’s skipper Chris Nicholson gives us a unique insight to what it is really like to drive one of these incredible Volvo 70s through big seas and winds in excess of 30 knots, check out the footage from multiple cameras and some awesome Gro Pro footage from Nico.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rome Kirby hangs on from the back of the boat while keeping his weight aft. PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG during leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Auckland, New Zealand to Itajai, Brazil. Image (c) Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race

"Champagne Sailing", with big winds, blue oceans, warm water, and clear skies onboard PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG during leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Sanya, China to Auckland, New Zealand. Image (c) Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race

The latest update from the South Pacific Ocean where the Volvo Ocean Race is racing hard and fast at around 20 knots of boatspeed.  3000 miles to go until they reach Auckland, New Zealand.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Media Crew Member (MCM) Nick Dana sent this breathless report after an action packed day on board Azzam:

What a day. Boat breakages, people breakages and very fast yachting.

People are beginning to wear thin; the non-stop fire hosing is taking a toll on everyone’s bodies and minds.

Justin Slattery (bowman) commented: “It was becoming difficult to look after yourself out there, let alone trimming a sail.”

Last night during a sail change, Ian Walker (skipper) was pinned in between the rail and the heaviest sail on the boat. His shin took the brunt of it, and it looks like he is struggling to be weight bearing.

He quickly shot down below after it had happened and seemed quite nauseous with pain. “Most likely just a bad bone bruise, but hurt like you wouldn’t believe!” he said lying back in his bunk.

As morning broke and the breeze began to moderate to the low 20’s, the boat seemed fairly under control – wet, smelly and violently smashing off waves, but under control.

About mid way through Craig Satterthwaite and Wade Morgan’s watch, a massive wave broke over the boat just forward of the beam, sending a larger than average wall of water against the watch team.

Craig, who was the most exposed at the time, took the largest hit. Standing just in front of the steering guard cage his upper body was completely racked against the titanium fence. We’re not sure yet, but hopefully there is no rib damage.

Shortly after Craig’s beating, there was a large snap that came from the bow. Justin Ferris, who driving at the time immediately depowered the boat by turning down wind, making it safe to move to the bow for inspection.

With a few trips above and below deck inspecting the jib trough, Wade confirmed that we had broken our jib cunningham ram. Within an hour Slattery and Wade had jury-rigged an alternative solution, and we were off again.

With another 30+ hours of similar conditions, there is bound to be more action.

Alex Thomson attempts what he calls ‘The Keel Walk’, on board his 60ft yacht ‘HUGO BOSS’.

Alex is a professional yachtsman with two world records under his belt.  At age 25, he was the youngest skipper ever to win a round the world race in the 1998/1999 Clipper Round the World Race, a record he still holds today.

Hugo Boss is a 60-foot carbon fiber yacht designed for single-handed, round-the-world offshore racing in the Vendee Globe Challenge.  She was designed by legendary naval architect Juan Kouyoumdjian, and is significantly more powerful than any other vessels in her class.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By Tom Weaver, Partner, Weaver-Price Design & Construction

We are all living in an era of truly remarkable development within the world of offshore sailing.  Banque Populaire V, a 130ft ocean racing trimaran has just shattered the round-the-world nonstop sailing record by more than 2 days with an average speed of 26.51 knots.

The record now stands at 45d 13h 42m 53s.  

Skippered by Loïck Peyron of France, the crew of Banque Populaire V raced around the planet under sail power alone at speeds in excess of 43 knots.  In fact, upon leaving France at the end of November, they were dodging icebergs in the Southern Ocean by Christmas, and have completed the circumnavigation via the 3 great capes, a route made famous by the great grain clippers of the early 19^th century.  To put this into perspective, the round-the-world record was lowered to under 80 days for the very first time in 1993, it now stands at just over 45 days.

Helmsman Brian Thompson, who is also the only native English-speaker on board, was a teammate of mine back in the early 2000’s when we competed on Cheyenne (formerly Playstation), a 125ft catamaran attempting numerous 24hr, transatlantic, and round-the-world records.  Brian has now become the first Englishman to complete 4 non stop circumnavigations (he has attempted many more) and is soft spoken and enthusiastic and probably one of the more laid back people I have ever been to sea with.  Throughout this adventure Brian has kept me enthralled with his adventure via Twitter and Facebook, and the bar he and the rest of team on Banque Populaire V have now set will certainly prove a formidable barrier to overcome in the future.

Follow Brian Thompson on Twitter @briansailing

Check out this video of Banque Populaire V as they smash the Transatlantic Record…  It’ll give you an idea of what 40 knots in a sailboat looks like.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image (c) Amory Ross/Puma Ocean Racing powered by Berg

“These are our new best friends,” skipper Ken Read remarked as the Maltese-flagged containership Zim Monaco pulled up alongside his carbon fiber dismasted raceboat, Mar Mostro, in the middle of the southern Atlantic Ocean.

This 257-meter long containership had recently departed Rio de Janeiro when they were alerted to the emergency on board Puma Ocean Racing’s entry in the Volvo Ocean Race… While sailing along comfortably at around 21 knots of boatspeed, Mar Mostro’s carbon fiber mast snapped unexpectedly, quickly changing their situation from competition, to survival.

They were 700 miles from land and the carbon stump sticking out of their deck was not going to get them to shore before their food and water ran out.

After carefully lowering jugs of diesel from the towering steel hull deck of Zim Monaco,  Mar Mostro now is powering her way to the obscure rocky island of Tristan da Cunha, where in a few days time, her crew will rendezvous with another merchant ship that will pluck the yacht from the sea and carry her south to Cape Town, and hopefully in time for the start of Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Ironically enough, Mar Mostro’s other major sponsor, besides Puma, is Berg Propulsion, a designer and producer of controllable pitch propellers.  Who would have guessed that during the first leg of this famous race, that already half the fleet would have had to rely on their propellers, vice sails, to get safely to shore…

Credit: Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race

Jonathan Swain and Rome Kirby pulling a jug of diesel onboard. PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG re-fuel during a mid-ocean rendezvous with the "Zim Monaco" on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa. (Credit: Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race) Volvo Ocean Race

Video Of The Rescue

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video via Benjamin Carbone

Follow the Volvo Ocean Race on Facebook here

I was walking along the seawall at the US Naval Academy last night when I saw the slightly lit shape of a huge sailboat moving silently and easily amongst a flotilla of yachts anchored in Annapolis Harbor.  They didn’t appear to be boats left over from the Annapolis Sailboat Show the week before, their decks were cluttered with gear and didn’t have the shiny look of a new boat.  Annapolis is a popular Fall stopover point for sailors from the Northeast who aim to sail their boats south to the Caribbean for the winter, or to points beyond.

Back in 1998, my parents had been anchored off that very seawall before heading south for Norfolk and the start of the Caribbean 1500, a rather laid back ocean race from the Chesapeake Bay to the Virgin Islands.   The trip south in 1998 however, was by no means laid back.  The remnants of Hurricane Mitch blew across the fleet, and at least one boat was lost.  During the storm, my parents and crew hove-to for the night and made it to the Islands with no issues.  10 years, 50,000 miles, and countless adventures later, Calypso eventually returned to her home waters on east coast of the United States.

Although more than twice as long, and with a more modern design, this dark hull sliding through the water in Annapolis was similar in many ways to Calypso.   From a quarter-mile away it was clear she was built for one purpose, to explore the far corners of our planet via the high seas.

She reminded me of the Seamaster, a boat once sailed by New Zealand explorer and famed ocean yacht racer Sir Peter Blake.  In 2001, while sailing up the Amazon River on an environmental expedition, he was attacked and murdered by robbers.  Peter Blake had been a hero of mine since I was kid.  For someone who had never gone faster than 8 knots on a sailboat, watching him and his crew in the 1989 Whitbread Round-the-World Race blaze through  the Southern Ocean on the 90-foot Steinlager II was nothing short of incredible.

This morning, through my apartment window facing Back Creek, two huge masts came into view and quickly spun around.  This huge, aluminum hulled beast that I had seen last night was stopping by the fuel dock a block away from my door.  Megayachts and shiny raceboats were a pretty familiar sight, and the wow factor has worn off over the years, but this boat was definitely unique.  It had a mostly plumb bow, a bare aluminum hull, and deck hardware that looked like it came off a tugboat.  This boat was built to go places, and I knew I had to go down there to see what the story was behind this yacht with the words PANGAEA painted on her bow.

As I walked up to PANGAEA, I met a number of young adults who spoke heavily accented English and were busy refueling and filling the yacht’s water tanks.  Apparently there was an air bubble somewhere in their fuel system that was turning this rather simple routine into an all-day affair of filling up and emptying out jerry cans.

Unbeknownst to me, the skipper of PANGAEA was directing operations from her beam and he was the first person I met.

“Who is Mike Horn?” I asked him.

The name was in huge letters on the both masts and I figured there had to be a connection…

“That’s me,” he responded.

I had no idea who I had just met, but I soon found out that I was talking to one of the most accomplished explorers on our planet.

Over the course of his life, Mike has racked up more adventures than any 1000 people that I know.  He is the Dos Equis guy, if you had to pick a real-life version.

Mary Buckheit, a former writer for ESPN, who is now Mike Horn’s Communications and Media Relations Director, was there this morning to give me the scoop on this rugged looking, South African-accented, individual whom I had just met.  In an article she wrote for ESPN earlier this year, she described Mike:

Mike Horn horn after solo-traversing the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole. He arrived at a village called Kugaaruk, (otherwise known as Pelly Bay), a small Inuit village situated on the west coast of Simpson Peninsula on the mainland of Canada. Mike progressed at an average of about 15kms a day, battling against temperatures ranging somewhere between -40°C and -60°C

He once walked out the front door of a camp on the equator, and 18 months later, after the circumvolution of the globe at latitude zero on foot, bicycle, canoe and sail, he entered through the back door.

He speaks fluent Afrikaans, English, Spanish, German, French, Russian and Dutch … in a mellifluous Cape Town accent.

When he was 28, he had a huge party to give away his house, his car and all of his belongings before up and moving to a foreign country — sight unseen — on a standby ticket.

His blood smells like cologne.

He walked across Siberia for one and a half years. Alone.

His hands feel like rich, brown suede.

A tow truck once hauled away his illegally parked U-Haul from a Dunkin Donuts. He saw it being yanked from the car park and tore after it on foot. He caught up, scaled the truck’s cab, threw open the door and — amid an extempore scuffle — accidentally broke the driver’s arm. An ambulance and cruisers arrived. Cops seized Horn immediately and threw him against the wall. After only a few minutes of questioning, the sheriff felt inclined to release Horn (and his vehicle) ungrudgingly and citation-free. The squad then provided a police escort through the city to Horn’s awaiting plane for an on-time departure.

Hearing this story, and looking at the boat before me, I knew that I had definitely made the right call by coming down to the fuel dock.  I was crossing paths with a very unique person.  An individual filled with stories only those who live on the bleeding edge of life can truly understand or appreciate.

He should be dead.  I mean, anyone who begins stories with, “when I was walking through the Congo on my way to Somalia” is either lying to you, or the story is just never told because they disappeared along the way, never to be seen again.   The days of exploration are over, this kind of shit just doesn’t happen anymore.

Fortunately for the teenagers on board PANGAEA, there are still real life adventures to be had, and Mike Horn is still alive to lead them.  In fact, PANGAEA had just arrived in Annapolis after completing a traverse of the Northwest Passage from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, and is on her way to Florida to explore the Everglades before an expedition next year far up the Amazon River.

On board PANGAEA, Mike is leading the Young Explorers Program (YEP), an ongoing sailing expedition around the world that exposes teenagers to real-life, harsh environment adventures, while at the same time giving them a personal view and the ability to act on important environmental issues around our planet.   Since 2008, Mike has taken the Young Explorers on nine expeditions which included notable stops in Monaco, the Arctic and Nunavut Canada, New Zealand, Antarctica, Mongolia, South Africa and Borneo.

Sounds cool right?

Guess what else… it’s completely free for all participants.

This is no vacation however…

If chosen to participate in this program, youngsters can expect long days filled with watch standing, cooking, cleaning, navigating, and learning how to maintain this traveling classroom at sea.  The theme of the YEP is to promote exploration, learning, and to provide teens with the tools necessary for follow-on action.  While part of this program, projects are undertaken within the areas of Ecology and Conservation, Water and Sanitation, or Social Community involvement.

After tens of thousands of ocean miles, very little has been able to slow this boat down, or Mike Horn for that matter.  Fortunately for me however, a pesky air bubble was all it took to keep them in Annapolis for a few extra hours.

PANGAEA has three more expeditions ahead of her before the end of 2012 including stops in the Florida Everglades, the Gulf of Mexico, Patagonia, Brazil, and back to East Africa. Interested 15-20-year-olds may still apply via Mike’s website at www.mikehorn.com.

The Schooner Bowdoin Encounters Rough weather in the Laurentian Channel, image by Roberto Riveira, Maine Maritime Academy

In this modern age, all maritime schools are spending a great deal of money and time buying and training our students to operate the latest technologies in ship operations and management.  Why then would Maine Maritime Academy want to also train them to sail an eighty year old sailing ship?

The answers are many, but first let it be said that we don’t require all of our students to sail on our sail training vessel, the 1921 built, wooden, two-masted schooner Bowdoin.  We require our Vessel Operations & Technology students (candidates for 500 or 1600 ton licenses) to do so, and we encourage all others to do so.

The primary reason we encourage all students to take advantage of this training is that we consider it the finest basic training there is for a career at sea.  It is training with consequences.

How many mates, standing watch in the enclosed, air conditioned bridge of a container ship or tanker, do you think would be able to answer the question “What direction and strength is the wind at this moment?” without having to look, either out the wheelhouse windows, or worse, at the anemometer?  It would be a rare mate on a sailing ship who couldn’t tell you immediately, without even glancing at the compass.  Most of them could tell you even when they are off watch.  And most of them will notice, even when down below having dinner, if the wind shifts by more than a point.

Why?  Because such information has consequences on board a sailing ship.  It has consequences on board a container ship or a tanker as well, but too many mates are too far removed from their environment to notice such things.

A training program on board a sailing ship requires no contrived input from the “trainers” since the environment provides the curriculum.  If you simply require the trainees to plan and execute the voyage they will get plenty of training.  That is what makes it such a powerful training tool.  There need be no lecture on the effects of a wind shift on your planned route.  It will be obvious when it occurs, and it will demand a solution immediately.  There will be no grade to debate.  You will either arrive on time, and without damage, or you will not.  It will be quite clear if you have passed the final exam.

The consequence of each and every decision is obvious…sometimes painfully so.  A delayed decision about reefing might be made out of laziness, inattention to the changing conditions or simply out of decision-making paralysis.  Regardless of the reason, such a delay may easily require all hands to be called in the middle of the night to tie in a reef (shorten sail) in the midst of a squall, increasing the risk to all.  All hands will know who didn’t pass that test of seamanship.  There are consequences to even the smallest things.  A furled sail incorrectly secured to the spar will find its way out of its lashing in a squall, perhaps causing the loss of the sail.  The consequences of that mistake are more than financial.  Shipmates on some vessels will have to be put at risk to climb aloft to secure the damaged sail before more harm is done.  Then the vessel will have to proceed at reduced speed until a sail repair lesson is completed.

Auxiliary Sail class practicing reefing with MMA’s second, smaller schooner Puritan in Castine harbor, with the Bowdoin and many of our small boats in the background.

Every aspect of seamanship is revealed in its purest and most demanding form.  Some examples:

Meteorology:  You must understand the minutest details of meteorology if you are to take advantage of every slant of wind between departure and arrival.  To miss the signs of an approaching storm or squall can have severe consequences.

Marlinspike Seamanship:  You will use knots and splices, bends and beckets, deadeyes and lanyards, wire and rope, canvass stitches and patches, and rigging techniques that though old, are still important today.  For what is modern cargo gear (yes, even a container crane) but a refinement of the old sailing ship rig?  It may be nearly unrecognizable now, but the basic principles are exactly the same, and an understanding of the basics will help the mate understand the most modern equipment.

Stability:  A sailing ship is a stability model in motion.  You see and feel every force.  You are engaged in a perpetual inclining experiment.  You must constantly monitor the forces of the sails and the seas so as to stay within the safe limits of your dynamic stability curves.  While a sailing ship’s generous stability may be forgiving, the crew may not be when you cause them to be thrown from their bunks by misreading the approaching wave, or failing to slack a sheet.

Shiphandling:  As master of a modern containership, car carrier, or LNG ship you will be carrying more sail area than the largest sailing ship ever built.  If you don’t understand the effects of wind on a sail you will forever be at a disadvantage when handling your vessel.  If, however, you have learned to handle a sailing vessel you will find it intuitive to use the wind as an assisting force whenever possible.  Even when not under sail, a sailing ship is a strict teacher of shiphandling, for such vessels are typically under-powered, carry a large amount of windage, and have very delicate projections at each end (bowsprits and boomkins and such).

Cargo Stowage:  Given the amount of heel that sailing vessels typically carry when under sail, cargo stowage is arguably more demanding than on any other type of vessel.  Imagine being told to stow your cargo for a voyage that will be conducted with an anticipated list of ten degrees, which will alternate every few days from port to starboard.  And expect to roll deeply on a regular basis.  Your cargo lashings and shoring will be severely tested.

Navigation:  Gone is the notion of laying down a trackline in advance and following it for days or weeks on end.  Under sail there is no such thing as a rhumb line or a great circle track from departure to destination.  Every day is spent going in every direction but the one you desire, hoping to make good, on average, a track approximately toward your destination.  Your navigation is constantly challenged as you carry each tack as close to danger as circumstances and good seamanship permit, in order to take advantage of a good slant of wind.

Navigation instruction on board the Bowdoin, at Bras D’Or Lakes, Nova Scotia

Merchant Navies of many countries have long recognized the value of a traditional sailing vessel to train men and women to sail on power driven merchant ships.  Some of our students will benefit by this training for a merchant marine career.  But with all the traditional sailing ships operating in the world today, we are in fact training many of our students to be the mates and masters aboard these sailing vessels.  Tall Ships America (formerly the American Sail Training Association) lists over 150 such vessels in their directory, and all of them need qualified and certified mates and masters.  Maine Maritime Academy is the only school in the US where a student can get a college degree, a license, and all the necessary international certificates to sail in these positions.  We have a large number of faculty and staff with extensive experience in this field, and as a result we have assembled a concentration in Sail Training.  This curriculum includes courses dealing with topics such as rigging, sail handling, and sailing vessel stability.

In August of 2003 we determined by poll that forty percent of our incoming mate candidates considered sail training to be a “major” factor in their choice of MMA over other maritime colleges.  It is a niche market, and we are proud to be in the lead position in this unique field, especially since it compliments our core mission so well.

Details about MMA’s Sail Training Curriculum can be found at:  http://sailtraining.mma.edu/

Navy 44's round the leeward mark during the 2005 Lloyd Phoenix Regatta in Annapolis, MD

By Art Pine, images by Robert Almeida

Step aboard a naval vessel these days, and you quickly see a stunning breadth of high-technology equipment. Navigating? Today’s ship is the province of GPS receivers and computers.  Posting a lookout? That task is handled largely by satellites and sophisticated radar. The helm is highly automated. And nuclear power is the propulsion of choice.

So why bother training today’s officer candidates on sailing vessels?

The debate has been going on for decades, intensifying with each advance in shipboard technology. In the latest go-around, Vice Admiral Jeffrey L. Fowler, the U.S. Naval Academy’s superintendent from mid-2007 to August 2010, raised hackles by trimming the sail-training program there, reducing opportunities for midshipmen to take part.

Fowler argued that, especially at a time when the nation is at war, the Academy couldn’t afford to let midshipmen spend too much time on sail-training, which he viewed as little more than a sport. He said mids would be better served by doing all their training on board gray-hull warships—sometimes referred to as “grayships”—where they most likely would be assigned after they were commissioned.

But proponents of sail-training contend that, anachronistic as it may seem, providing midshipmen, Coast Guard cadets, and maritime academy students with intensive training on sailboats offers unparalleled opportunities for teaching seamanship, shiphandling, navigation, and leadership skills—at a depth that they’re unlikely to get on board warships.

Former Navy Midshipman Ryan Kimmel directs maneuvers from the bow

‘A Vital Building-Block’

“It’s a vital building-block, not only for seamanship and navigation, but for leadership development and learning how to make decisions under stress,” said Rear Admiral Garland P. Wright Jr., who was co-captain of the Academy’s intercollegiate champion sailing team in 1977 and now is deputy director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

“The conditions and situations that you face under sail can’t be replicated either in a classroom or aboard a gray-ship,” he continued. “You assume an awful lot of responsibility when you take a sailboat offshore, and you face a lot of challenges. It’s not just about seamanship—it’s risk-management and decision-making as well.”

To be sure, no one is suggesting that sea-officer academies provide all of their underway training on sailing vessels. Even the most hard-bitten advocates concede that summer cruises on board gray-hull ships are essential. So is the training provided aboard yard patrol boats (YPs) that the Academy uses for teaching shiphandling.

But neither vessel offers what sail training provides. The month that third-class mids spend on big ships of the Fleet amounts largely to an orientation cruise, to acquaint them with shipboard routine and let them experience what enlisted personnel do. On their first-class cruise, they get limited training as division officers and on the bridge.

During the year, the mids train on board YPs — stubby, 108-foot, twin screw diesel craft – which give them an opportunity to practice docking and shiphandling on the Severn River. They also take longer trips in summer to nearby seaports such as New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. There’s no doubt that the time is well spent.

Out of Their Element(s)

Yet on both types of vessels, the crew is largely protected from the elements. Likewise, the movements of those vessels are far less affected by the wind, current, and sea-state than sailboats are. Engines keep the gray-hull going, no matter what the weather or seas. And plenty of other people are on board to help set a course and manage the crew.

By contrast, the 16 specially built 44-foot sloops (called 44s) that make up the heart of the Naval Academy’s sail-training program are totally dependent on wind, waves, and currents; the midshipmen who act as skipper and crew members do everything themselves. They must cope swiftly with emergencies.

Proponents say that makes mids, who have had extensive experience on board sailboats, decidedly more sensitive to how wind, waves, and currents affect a vessel; more aware of how vital it is for crew members to work together; and more skilled in handling unexpected challenges, from a sudden hardware failure to a blown-out sail or backstay.

“Things happen on a sailboat much faster than on a grayship,” said Gary Jobson, a New York Maritime Academy graduate and former naval officer who is now an ESPN commentator and president of U.S. Sailing. “Everybody has a job, and every action you take makes a difference. You need to make split-second decisions, and work as a team.”

Mids also gain the kind of direct experience in voyage planning, vessel-preparation, watch-scheduling, personal responsibility, team-building, leadership, and decision-making while under stress that they don’t ordinarily encounter during their training cruises on board Fleet ships—or even as junior officers once they’ve been commissioned.

Stress That Can’t Be Simulated

Mayhem ensues at the leeward mark during a particularly windy Navy Fall 2005 regatta

“Sail-training puts people under a type of stress that you just don’t get from a grayship or simulator,” said Captain Kathryn Hire, a former Naval Academy sailboat skipper who rose from Navy flight officer to NASA astronaut.  “This kind of thing is really important for a naval leader.”

That, in turn, builds confidence among the mids who have taken part in the sail-training program, making them better leaders when they’re on the 44s and more effective officers after they’re commissioned, Wright said. “Confidence builds optimism, optimism builds resiliency, and resilience builds success.”

Moreover, sea officers who have had sail-training as midshipmen or cadets say the lessons they learned on a sailboat invariably made them better shiphandlers on warships or merchantmen after they’re out in a fleet, and their skills stay with them throughout their naval or merchant marine careers.

Jobson recalls his early days on a destroyer, when the captain called all the junior officers to the bridge for docking practice in the face of strong winds and currents. While others blundered, those who had had sail training brought the ship in perfectly on the first try. “Coping with wind and currents was second nature,” Jobson said.

Intercollegiate sailors race to the reach mark in Vanguard 420s on the Severn River in Annapolis

Hire says sailors make better aviators as well, because they’ve already acquired a keen appreciation of the effects that relative motion and constantly shifting winds can have on a vessel before they begin flight training. And they find that that quickly translates into operating aircraft, too.

“They just have a natural feel for the wind—that it’s not always steady— and a better appreciation of relative motion, and  they’re a lot more alert to both of those than aviators who haven’t had sail-training,” Hire said.

And because sails are built like airfoils, sailors also develop a better feel for the dynamics of wings and ailerons.

Sailing at Other Academies

Coast Guard cadents learn the fine points of sail on board the 75-year old cutter Eagle, a 295-foot barque that prior to World War II, was a sail-trainer for the German navy. The square-rigger regularly travels U.S. coastal waters and annually visits several foreign ports. Here, her crew takes in sails in the waters off Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2010. (USCG Photo)

The Navy isn’t the only service that uses sailing vessels to help train its officer-candidates. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy sends all its swabs (plebes) on a weeklong training cruise on board the USCGC Eagle (WIX-327), a 295-foot, 75-year-old, square-rigged barque that regularly plies coastal waters and visits several foreign ports each year.

Every voyage includes 120 underclass cadets, who serve in enlisted billets, and 21 upperclassmen in officers’ slots. Coast Guard Captain Eric Jones, the Eagle’s skipper, points out that cadets may not fill officer roles on a standard ship because they aren’t commissioned, but they are authorized to do so on board the square-rigger.

He calls the Eagle the “ultimate leadership laboratory.”

The Coast Guard Academy also is acquiring eight new sloops, similar to the Navy 44s, to triple the size of a 12-day coastal sail-training program that offers cadets the same goals and training regimen as the Naval Academy’s 44s. The acquisition is being financed by donations from alums. The school will retain four Luder 44s it has been using for years.

At the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, New York, and several state maritime academies as well, sailing vessels are part of the training. Although those programs generally are less ambitious than those of their Navy and Coast Guard counterparts, students nonetheless are exposed to some basic sail-training on board small recreational boats.

The Merchant Marine Academy requires all plebes to undergo sail-training and strongly encourages them to take part in its offshore sailing team and intercollegiate dinghy team. It also maintains a 110-foot schooner and a fleet of six 26-foot sloops and 60 dinghies, along with a variety of sailboats donated by private citizens.

Tall Ships America, formerly the American Sail Training Association, counts at least 31 large sail-training ships at sea-service academies in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and other countries. And that doesn’t count the smaller vessels such as pleasure-boat-sized sloops and dinghies.

“Sail-training is an irreplaceable element in training mariners of any sort,” said retired Navy Rear Admiral Philip H. Greene, the Merchant Marine Academy’s superintendent. USMMA mids spend months on board large cargo vessels as well, but “technology can’t replace those skills” they “learn and hone” in sail-training.

Naval Academy Inventory

The 44s aren’t the only vessels in the Naval Academy’s inventory. New mids receive 15 hours of sail-training during their plebe summer on board one of the 30 smaller (26-foot) sailboats the Academy maintains. There also is a fleet of 115 dinghies for midshipmen to use for practice and to race in intercollegiate competition.

The school additionally maintains an assortment of seven donated boats, from 24 feet to 52 feet long, to take part in races offshore and on Chesapeake Bay; larger boats are used for transatlantic voyages. The Academy has a varsity offshore sailing team that competes in a wide variety of contests. In all cases, the boats are manned entirely by mids.

But the Navy 44s are where the real action is in Academy sailing. Spartan by any standard, the 44s are more complex, sturdier, and more difficult to sail than a comparably sized recreational boat, and everyone on the ten-member crew is needed to make things go smoothly.

Mids get more hands-on experience on board 44s than they do on YPs. The crews on 44s are split into two five-person watches, which rotate in handling all the tasks of running a ship. By contrast, the YPs maintain ten-person watches all the time, so individual mids don’t get as much on-the-job training in each billet.

The mids maintain a Navy-style command structure, with a captain, executive officer, navigator, assistant navigator, engineer, first lieutenant, two watch captains, bowman, and (in case of racing) a tactician. Mids stand regular watches and rotate among the jobs. They’re expected to acquire the necessary skills in each billet before they can take command.

Hands-on Learning at Sea

Coast Guard Academy cadets set sails high in the rigging of the Eagle in the North Sea during this year’s summer training cruise, which marked the vessel’s 75th anniversary. Her skipper, Captain Eric Jones, says that because of the opportunities the Eagle affords cadets, she is the “ultimate leadership laboratory.” (USCG Photo)

In the summer, midshipmen crews take the 44s on three-week deployments offshore—planning the voyage, laying out the courses, and dealing with any emergencies that may arise. An active-duty officer or civilian instructor serves as a safety officer, but leaves the running of the boat entirely to the mids.

“Our academic courses provide the foundation, but sail-training puts meat on the bones,” said Navy Captain Stan Keeve, the Academy’s director of professional development. “It does a fantastic job of giving midshipmen a chance to test not only their skills but the character of their leadership. You become a more competent maritime officer.”

Newly commissioned Marine Corps Second Lieutenant Michael Smithson can attest to the challenges mids learn to overcome in sail-training. On an offshore cruise in 2010 his Navy 44 unexpectedly lost steering in six-foot seas and heavy winds, forcing him to rig emergency steering, arrange for emergency repairs, and navigate through shoal waters.

“There’s nothing contrived about being on a sailboat 70 miles off the New Jersey coast and being responsible for the lives of eight other crew members,” recalled Smithson.  “Mother Nature is a powerful thing, and a 44-foot sailboat out in the Atlantic Ocean is awfully small. Leadership opportunities like that are hard to come by.”

Sail-training isn’t cheap. The Naval Academy’s sail-training program costs the service about $204,000 a year for materials. It uses about two dozen military and paid civilian personnel to operate the program and perform routine maintenance. And it uses 50 civilian volunteers to serve as coaches and safety officers for training cruises and races.

The Eagle costs the Coast Guard $800,000 a year for operations and maintenance, plus about $1.5 million for overhauls—usually every three to five years—performed at the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore.  Designing and building the eight new 44s cost $6.4 million—half donated by the Coast Guard Foundation.

Highs and Lows

The Navy 26s, designed by Steve Colgate, are an integral part of sail training for the US Naval Academy Offshore Sailing Team

Sail-training at the Naval Academy has had its ups and downs over the years.  Begun in 1846, a year after the Academy was founded, sail-training was abandoned in 1909, after the service finished converting its fleet to steam propulsion—and essentially ignored for 27 years.

Revived in 1936, it gradually grew to include the Navy 44s and a flotilla of smaller sailboats donated by private citizens. The Academy just finished replacing its fleet of 44s with a new Mark II version that, while similar in appearance, incorporates a wholly new hull design and deck plan. Two new Mark IIs for racing are due in next summer.

The program also has depended on who was superintendent. Admiral Charles R. Larson, who held the post from mid-1994 to mid-1998, and Vice Admiral Rodney P. Rempt, who served from mid-2003 to mid-2007, were staunch advocates of sail-training, and the program expanded dramatically.

Ralph Naranjo, a nationally known sailing authority and author who held the Vanderstar Chair at the Naval Academy during that time and played a key role in the  program, says the number of summertime missions on board 44s soared to 105 during Rempt’s years, from 48 before.

“The growth of the program [under Rempt] was meteoric,” Naranjo recalled.

But Vice Admiral Richard J. Naughton, superintendent from mid-2002 to mid-2003, and Fowler clearly had their doubts about it. Under Fowler, opportunities for sail-training were cut sharply; missions on Navy 44s fell to an average of 28 during his term.

Under the current superintendent, Vice Admiral Michael H. Miller, the number of sail-training missions on the 44s has risen to 65. And Miller has strengthened the link between the sailing program and the Academy’s professional development program, employing sail-training missions to help teach subjects such as leadership, ethics, and law.

Scuttling the Sailing Association?

Meanwhile, separately, the Navy has ended its support for the U.S. Naval Sailing Association (USNSA), which occupied offices at the U.S. Naval Station across the Severn River and set rules and professional standards for sail-training at Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps units and for sailing clubs at armed forces marinas on both coasts.

The service also formally abolished its office of Director of Navy Sailing, ousted the USNSA from its offices, and cut financial aid for its program. Sailing association officials are pondering whether to continue past the end of this year or disband—a step advocates say would be a service-wide setback for sailing.

Retired Navy Captain Gerard M. Farrell, who just stepped down as chairman of the U.S. Naval Sailing Foundation, said the group is “trying to figure out if it has a role to fill. The Navy appears to be backing away from any formal recognition [of USNSA] in officer training. If that’s the case, then the association seems not to be required anymore.”

Jobson, a former member of the committee that advises the Naval Academy on sail-training, said the “roller-coaster” expansion and contraction of the program is only hurting the Academy. He said the Navy needs to decide what kind of sail-training the Academy should provide and stick to it, no matter who is superintendent.

“It’s important that the Academy institutionalize its sail-training, so we don’t change our tactics with each administration.”

Mr. Pine, a former naval officer, is a veteran journalist who has worked as a Washington correspondent for The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. 

Reprinted from Proceedings with permission; Copyright © 2011 U.S. Naval Institute/www.usni.org

Solitude at Sea

Three years, 30,000 miles

Reviewed by John Rousmaniere, edited by Gene Epstein, Barrons

Anybody hoping for a happier second act in life will find inspiration—as well as caution—in the story of Captain Joshua Slocum (1844-1908). Praised by Theodore Roosevelt as the hero “who takes his little boat, without any crew but himself, all around the world,” Slocum stimulated thousands to change their lives with his 1900 book, Sailing Alone Around the World, which recounts that adventure.

That Geoffrey Wolff tells this story knowledgably and sympathetically should be no surprise. He is, after all, the author of The Duke of Deception, Black Sun and other books about tipping points in the male ego. Wolff is also a fine writer who understands how another fine writer could produce one of the very best books ever about going to sea.

Slocum initially went to sea not for romance, but to escape his father’s beatings and the tiny Nova Scotia island of his childhood. For years he thrived as a captain of commercial sailing ships. But by his fortieth birthday, steam was supplanting sail, so he lost his livelihood. Then he lost his wife—the only person who ever loved and understood him. At 50 years old, the former clipper-ship captain was working on shore as a carpenter when a friend offered him an ancient and decrepit 37-foot fishing sloop. As Slocum rebuilt Spray, he devised a daring plan.

Ever since Magellan, large crews of sailors had been sailing around the world for cash. Slocum, already the accomplished author of short pieces, would make the trip alone and sell his words about it. This scheme led to a great voyage and a masterpiece of maritime writing.

Before setting out, Slocum faced two crucial questions: Was Spray up to the job? Was he? Without another sailor, Spray would have to steer itself for days on end. Unsure that this was possible, Slocum kept delaying his departure. After he finally got under way, in July 1895, Spray showed a wondrous ability to steer any course without his hand on the wheel. Modern boats are as flighty as butterflies; Spray was as steady as a whale.

But could her skipper cope with the loneliness? He confessed that loneliness first got to him when he dreamed up the ghost of an old seaman who identified himself as a pilot of Columbus and assured Slocum that all was well. After that, wrote Slocum, “The acute pain of solitude experienced at first never returned.” He was a contented man as he sailed through the Straits of Magellan to Australia, and then to South Africa and home. Like so many solitary men, Slocum found it a little too easy to cross the line from the social world to the lonely world. Loneliness was his identity. He credited it for his fame and success, bragging that his navigation was precise because he had no shipmate to distract him.

After three years and 30,000 miles, Slocum’s journey was over. But he loved solitude too much to be at home on land. Happy only at sea, unable to resume domesticity with his second wife, he sold himself cheap as a sideshow exhibit at the Buffalo World’s Fair and spent his winters in the West Indies, collecting conch shells to sell to American yachtsmen. He reached bottom when a scandal involving a girl ended with a term in a New Jersey jail.

Ironically, as Slocum the man declined, his reputation only grew. Even after the sex scandal, President Roosevelt sent his son Archie off sailing with Slocum in Spray for a tutorial in heroic manliness.

Yet that one word, alone, at the heart of his reputation, also undermined him for keeps. In 1908, lonelier than ever, he sailed off in Spray and vanished in the Atlantic.

JOHN ROUSMANIERE’s maritime books include Fastnet, Force 10, After the Storm and The Annapolis Book of Seamanship.