You trust your landlubber peasent hero to sail your ship cuz he has +3 STR.Of course they can. They just apperently don’t need a tool proficiency to do it, or perhaps navigators tools covers it, or whatever else it might be.
“Sailors can’t sail boats” good grief
In my party, if no one has the proficency to sail outright then we are hiring a sailor who does. The navigator can navigate.