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| Navy 44s round the leeward mark |
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...
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