Sail training in the modern sense is a development of the manning methods of sailing ship operators at the start of the 20th Century.

Background

By 1900 most commercial sailing vessels were struggling to turn a profit in the face of competition from more modern steam ships which had become efficient enough to steam shorter Great Circle routes between ports instead of the longer trade wind routes used by sailing ships.

Sailing ship owners used a variety of methods to compete back. Ships were built larger to carry bulk cargoes more efficiently, their rigs were simplified to reduce manning costs and speed was no longer a premium. Owners shipped cargoes that were non-perishable so that their date of arrival (which steam ships had started to guarantee) were of less importance. Finally sailing ships were used in parts of the world where steam ships still found it hard to operate: principally on the Chilean Nitrate Trade (for fertilizers and explosive production in Europe) and on the Australian Grain Trade. Both Chile and Australian ports were hard to supply with coal for steamships to re-fuel.

The end of the First World War saw a brief return to profitability as all ship types were in scare supply due to wartime losses but immediately after the First World War boom came bust as new steam ships were built.

Genesis in the 1930's

One sailing ship owner - Gustav Erickson of the Åland Islands - determined that there was still a chance of making a profit from the last of the sailing ships. He purchased existing sound ships that required the minimum of capital investment and repaired them with parts cannibalised from other ships. He identified the bulk cargo routes that would still offer paying freights and he manned his ships with a smattering of experienced officers who he paid. The deckhands were drawn from apprentices from steamship lines and other adventurous youth who had all paid a premium to sail while being trained. These crews were considered trainees and were the first formalization of sail trainers with crew drawn from members of the public who just went for the adventure - as opposed to a career. With manning costs netted out on Erickson's balance sheet the ships continued to return a paper profit. However Erickson was under no illusions as to the long term profitability of his venture – which depended on ignoring the depreciation on his ships and a shrinking supply of old sound hulls and rigs. The family used their profits to diversify into steam after World War II

In the 1920’s and 30’s many countries of the world also operated sailing ships as training vessels for officers in their Merchant Marine. In 1934 Alan Villiers purchased the old school ship George Stag from Denmark, renamed her the Joseph Conrad, and sailed her round the world with no paying cargo and a crew of youth who had paid to be there. He also took as many non-paying youth as he could afford to fit in the budget – those he considered at risk on the streets of their inner cities and in need of what was then called “character building”. This trip was the genesis of current modern sail training – using manually operated ships and the discipline imposed by the sea to further personal development and taking those disadvantaged by circumstance to benefit from the experience.

Post World War II there were few merchant sailing ships left and almost no sail training ships – the loss of the Pamir in 1957 with virtually all of her 86 trainees seeming to signal the end of an era.

Modern Sail Training

However coincidently in 1956 in the UK Greville Howard had persuaded a number of ship owners to band together in Torbay on the South Coast of England to race informally across the Bay of Biscay to Lisbon in Portugal. Ships were manned with paying trainees and it was anticipated that this would be the last great gathering of ships under sail before they rotted away.

But the race fired the imagination of owners and "owners to be" and the ships raced again in 1957 and have every year since. Old ships were saved or repaired and new purpose built sail training ships have were commissioned. With the growth of the movement in many countries national Sail Training Associations affiliated to Sail Training International (originally the Sail Training Association) which co-ordinates race series around the world. Large summer events will find upwards of 100 ships racing across oceans in legs with crew exchanges taking place allowing young people from one country to sail with those from another. Indeed in 1974 – long before the end of the Cold War – ships from Russia and Poland joined the International Fleet and put behind them – as far as they were able – the totalitarianism of their regimes – allowing youth of the world to sail together and understand each other.

While the summer race series of TSI is the pinnacle of the sail training experience most maritime nations have government, private and charitably funded ships preserving the ways of seamen from a time gone by, helping youth and “senior youth” find themselves and working somewhere off their coasts on short trips during the temperate seasons. Some ships are historic replicas, others are constructed to require co-ordinated manual labor to sail them and others are purpose built educational platforms carrying out scientific research under sail. There are also ships still operating in the original tradition proposed by Alan Villiers – notably the Picton Castle

External References

• Picton Castle [1]
• Sail Training International [2]
• American Sail Training Association [3]
• Association of Sea Training Organisations [4]

Other References

• Eric Newby – The Last Grain Race ISBN: 0864427689
• Alan Villiers – The Cruise of the Conrad ISBN:0330029894