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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CarlZog" data-source="post: 2224807" data-attributes="member: 11716">I've done a lot of work sailing schooners and square rigs -- tall ships, basically.The Navy sail training was in 1996 and 1997, when the Navy was planning to sail the Constitution as part of its 200th anniversary celebration. I was working as 2nd mate on the Bounty, the replica built for the Marlon Brando version of Mutiny on the Bounty. We sailed back and forth from Florida to New England with the seasons, doing public sails, teen training and a lot of weekend waterfront festivals.The Constitution spends its days at the dock and its crew are mostly average Navy recruits who spend their days giving tours to the tourists. So they made several trips sailing with us to learn the ins and outs of handling a square-rig under sail. Though substantially smaller, the Bounty's rig was virtually identical, making the lessons easily transferable. The Constitution's captain at the time was eager for them all to be ready for a wide variety of possibilities.It was wild to see what they knew and didn't know. Some of them could probably have rebuilt nuclear reactors with their eyes closed, but they couldn't tie basic knots (Not much need on an aircraft carrier, I guess.).  A lot of them had never climbed in the rig before, something we discovered when they had go up to furl sails in a squall... That was interesting. The Constitution's celebratory sail went off  without a hitch, but she hasn't sailed again since the summer the '97. There was a lot of political brouhaha after the sail. Some of the old guard expressed concern that if she did more sailing she would be exposed to the chance of damage. The real fear, however, was that she might be pressured to leave Boston if it became clear that she was in good enough shape to travel to other ports on the east coast. Given her contribution to the local tourist trade, that was nothing the Boston politicos wanted to see! It's too bad; her visibility and publicity value could be SO much higher if the Navy was sailing her now and then.Carl</blockquote>

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