Roger the Dodger wrote:
IMHO a proper training ship is a 4 masted square rigged schooner. Teach the middies REAL sailing. The high tech video game stuff is vital but its not seamanship.
BTW Does the SAN still have a serious ocean racing yacht?
Amen, brother. Personally I couldn't agree more, but seeing as we already have the City class vessels just lying around, I thought this a more realistic suggestion. On the other hand sailing vessels don't need (much) fuel and we know the navy have sometimes been stuck in Simon's Town for want of diesel-money, so your suggestion might not be so bad.
The navy still has a few sailing yachts: a few L26s, the three Centurion vessels (all pretty old) and a newish Fast 42 called Umoya Omusha (even though from what I can gather there must be a sponsorship deal with MTU because it sometimes pops up in races as MTU Fascination of Power... I'm standing by to be corrected on this one).
But the navy's never given sailing the pride of place it deserves. Take this example:
Remember the old yacht Voortrekker (made famous by the late great Bertie Reed)? Voortrekker has been restored by and is now being raced by the navy-sponsored youth organisation Izivunguvungu
http://www.izivungu.co.za/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=59In the last Cape to Bahia race, these kids from the Cape Flats on their old navy yacht beat the navy's own team on their Fast 42.