Sail Ho, or Sail No? The Debate on Sail Training at the Maritime Academies | gCaptain ⚓ Maritime & Offshore News

Navy 44s round the leeward mark

Sail Ho, or Sail No? The Debate on Sail Training at the Maritime Academies | gCaptain ⚓ Maritime & Offshore News:

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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Sunset on the Palisades

Broad reach

Raised bed August 2013

click to enlarge

Kola Peninsula - trout fishing

Fly fishing for trout on Russia's Kola Peninsula, on the White Sea.  You can google it.

Jiuzhaigou Valley, Sichuan

Yosemite? No - the Jiuzhai Valley
Sichuan, China

Camping out on Governor's Island - if you arrive by human-powered boat

Special Night for Camping Not Far From City’s Lights - NYTimes.com:
by Winnie Hu

For one night every July, Governors Island, a 172-acre oasis that was once a military base and is usually open to sightseers only during the day, makes an exception to its no-camping rule for outdoor types who haul their tents and supplies over by canoe, kayak and rowboat (the only other camping on the island is by re-enactors during a Civil War history weekend). About 100 people slept over this year, undeterred by a heat wave and the threat of thunderstorms. Many were repeaters who waited all year to have the island to themselves in a city of eight million.

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Hydrofoil sailing - AC 72s - video

This video explains the essence of "foiling", hydro-foiling that is in the AC 72s - the Americas Cup boats.  I have long explained sailboats as an airplane with one wing in the air and one in the water.  But until now the job of the wing in the water has been to prevent sliding to leeward.  Now it is to lift the boat and stop slipping to leeward.  To prevent a nose dive (a head on crash at highway speeds) you must change the fore-aft tilt angle of the dagger boards (the hydro-foils).  The crew needs those helmets and high tech suits with built-in pfd's. - GWC

Quit y'er complainin'. The AC 72's are fast

Let's get over the whining about the America Cup.  Yes it's a club for the super-rich.  Hasn't it always been?  These boats are fast.  It is not like watching grass grow.  More like Nascar.  Here's Artemis - in blue - in the first race of the Challenger series and their first race in their new boat. Taking the start and windward leg - peaking at 39 kts.  This is a tribute to their team mate Andrew Simpson - the Olympic Gold medalist who died when their AC 72 footer pitch-poled.

blue sky

City Island Y.C.