Maine Maritime Academy To Offer Tall Ship Curriculum

Maine Maritime Academy kicks off its new Sail Training Curriculum with a cruise to Bermuda aboard the historic schooner Bowdoin.  Positions are available for several non-MMA students (high school diploma required) for this two-month cruise, which will involve one month (May) fitting out and one month (June) sailing the vessel from Penobscot Bay, Maine to Bermuda and back.  No previous sailing experience required.  Cost is $3400 per student with a $500 deposit due on February 20.  For more information click here.

Sail Training at Maine Maritime

Are you interested in learning to sail a Tall Ship? If your answer is yes, Maine Maritime Academy is your only real choice. No other college offers the training and certification necessary for you to gain employment on the world’s large, traditional sailing ships.

And even if you dream of such a career (or pastime), what is the reality of such a plan? Are there enough such vessels out there to warrant your efforts? The answer is an emphatic yes. The American Sail Training Association lists over 250 such vessels in their directory Sail Tall Ships. This number is up from just 80 in the 1980’s. Waterfront cities all around our coastline are building more sailing vessels, and every one of them needs trained, certified crew.

In the recent past, all you needed to get a job on board one of these ships was a good connection. Not so anymore. With strict new certification regulations, every member of the crew must meet rigorous training requirements ranging from Basic Safety Training to Advanced Fire Fighting. Here at Maine Maritime Academy, you will graduate with a license, a college degree, all the necessary certificates, plus a network of connections throughout the Sail Training Industry.

You’ll learn to sail on our fleet of small boats, gradually work your way up to skipper the 35 foot schooner Puritan (a Crocker designed gaff-rigged wooden schooner), and finally you will find yourself handling our 80 foot, 1921-built, wooden schooner Bowdoin as you work your way through a challenging series of tacks, jibes, heaving-to, anchoring and man overboard recovery, all under sail.

MMA is in the forefront of sail training because of the faculty we have. Professor G. Andy Chase is the author of Auxiliary Sail Vessel Operations, the definitive training text for sail training, and past master of the schooners Westward, and Bowdoin, among others. Assistant Professor Dan Parrott is the author of Tall Ships Down, a riveting and extremely educational study of five sail training ship casualties, and past master of the square topsail schooners Tole Mour and Pride of Baltimore II, and others. Instructor Michael Carr is the author of Weather Predicting Simplified, and past master of the schooner Ocean Star, among others. Associate Professor Don Eley has been master of numerous large sailing yachts, mate and training officer on the schooner Bowdoin. Elliot Rappaport is the permanent master on the schooner Bowdoin, and has been master of the schooners Westward and Corwith Cramer.

Come sailing with us!

Background:
As STCW certification standards are put into place, and the marine licensing process as a whole becomes more complex, the "through the hawsepipe" route, once commonly taken by mariners in the small-vessel industry, has become less feasible. Academy-based limited-tonnage programs, like MMA’s own Small Vessel Operations (SVO) major, have done a good job of filling the gap, providing candidates with a fully-packaged certification, including all current STCW requirements. Added to this is the opportunity to build knowledge in an academic environment, under the tutelage of experienced professional mariners.

A rapidly-growing branch of the small-boat industry is the field of auxiliary sail, where sailing school vessels (SSV`s) and large yachts employ thousands of licensed mariners, at increasingly competitive rates of pay. MMA is well-positioned to provide its graduates with an advantage for placement in this industry, employing only small revisions in existing curricula:

MMA has ample resources in its teaching infrastructure to support such a program, having several instructors with a strong professional background in auxiliary sail, an ocean-certified Sailing School Vessel, and courses already in the catalog.

The Auxiliary Sail Concentration is based on the Small Vessel Operations curriculum, which is a non-regimented program. Membership in the Regiment of Midshipmen is, however, available to interested students.

It should be noted that the completion of the first two years qualify the successful student for the 200 ton, near coastal mate’s license, with no USCG test required. With sufficient qualifying sea time under sail, and a sail addendum exam, this license can be endorsed for Auxiliary Sail. Also at this time, the successful student receives an Able Seaman’s document. At the completion of four years, the successful student is qualified to take the USCG exam for the 500 ton, near coastal license. This license can be upgraded all the way to Unlimited Second Mate with no further testing, as sea time is acquired.




The following new courses are included in the curriculum:

1. Advanced Sail Vessel Handling consists of 12 students in groups of 3 or 4 aboard the 20 – 30 foot sloops, with one instructor in a chase boat. Thus qualification as skipper of those boats would be a pre-requisite. This qualification can be acquired by taking PE 200, Intermediate Sailing, or, with suitable life experience, by taking a practical qualification test.
Catalog Description:
PE XXX Advanced Sail Vessel Handling. A follow-on course to Intermediate Sailing and Auxiliary Sail Vessel Operations, this half-semester course will give the student substantial vessel handling under sail. Students will be challenged with advanced sailing maneuvers with and without the instructor on board. Prerequisite: MMA certification as skipper of 20 – 30 foot sloops. Lab 3, cr. 0.5

2. Traditional Vessel Technology is a lab course meeting for two 3-hr. labs per week. The text is The Rigger’s Apprentice, by Brian Toss.
Catalog Description:
NS XXX Traditional Vessel Technology is a lab course which will introduce the student to the unique traditional skills necessary to maintain and operate traditionally rigged and/or built vessels. These skills include assembly and maintenance of wire and rope rigging, setting up and tuning this rigging, up-rigging and down-rigging of complex rigs safely including sending heavy spars aloft, caulking wooden hulls and decks, spar making, block maintenance, working aloft and general rig safety. Prerequisite NS 241. Lab 6, Cr. 3.

3. Sail Vessel Casualties would follow the subjects in the book Tall Ships Down, but expanding on them. This course would include more in-depth consideration of stability, vessel management, regulations, and meteorology, as highlighted by the casualties and their root causes. This course will be taught by Captain Parrott.
Catalog Description:
This course examines both regulatory and non-regulatory issues emerging from several important casualty cases involving large sailing vessels in recent decades. The emphasis is on distilling lessons, not only for the aspiring professional sailor, but for any safety minded mariner. Core issues are stability, design, weather, maintenance, retrofitting older vessels, experience and navigation. Shore-based and shipboard decision making is examined, as are the legal implications, policy ramifications and the process of inquiry. Prerequisite: NS 101. Lec. 2; Cr. 2.

4. The Auxiliary Sail Training Cruise (Bowdoin)
5. Catalog Description:
NS XXX Auxiliary Sail Training Cruise. This two-month training cruise will introduce the Auxiliary Sail License Candidate to the preparation and operation of a large, traditional sailing vessel. One month will be spent fitting out the Schooner Bowdoin (and other vessels) for her sailing season, and one month will be spent sailing her. The itinerary will include both coastwise and offshore sailing. Prerequisites: NS 101, PE 100, PE 114, NS 241, YT 102, and Firefighting. Cr. 4

Note there will be lab fee associated with this cruise, and with the SVO Training Cruise.


First Year
Fall Semester Course Credit Hours
Cs-100 Computer Applications 3
Hc-111 Composition 3
Ms-101 Pre-Calculus Math 4
Ns-101 Introduction to Nautical Science 2
Yo-103 Boatyard Operations 2
Pe-100 Sailing .5
Pe-114 Ocean Survival .5
Firefighting
15

First Year
Spring Semester Course Credit Hours
Hc-112 Humanities 3
Ps-102 Technical Physics 4
Ns-241 Seamanship 2
Yt-102 Small Craft Technology 3
Yt-105 Small Craft Construction 3
15



First Year
Summer Course Credit Hours
Cr-XXX Aux. Sail Training Cruise (Bowdoin) (30 days sail time) 3
Yo-203 SVO Co-op I (50 days sail time) 3
Second Year
Fall Semester Course Credit Hours
Oc-101 Introduction to Ocean Science 3
Ns-122 Cargo 1 3
Ns-281 Terrestrial Navigation I 4
Yt-210 Marine Systems 3
Yo-XXX Traditional Vessel Technology 3
Pe-200 Intermediate Sailing .5
16.5



Second Year
Spring Semester Course Credit Hours
Ns-262 Navigation Rules 3
Ns-292 Electronic Navigation 3
Ns-381 Terrestrial Navigation II 3
Yo-298 Topics in Small Vessel Operations 2
Yo-299 Limited License Seminar 1
General Education Elective 3
15

Second Year
Summer Course
Credit Hours
Yo-303 SVO Co-op II
(90 days sail time) 3



Third Year
Fall Semester Course Credit Hours
Hc-211 Humanities II 3
Ns-301 Stability 3
Ns-345 Ship Handling 3
Ns-221 Meteorology 3
Ns-341 Auxiliary Sail Vessel Operations 3
15

Third Year
Spring Semester Course Credit Hours
Eg-392 Diesels II 3
Ns-282 Celestial Navigation I 3
Ns-332 Marine Communications 3
Ns-342 Workboat Operations 3
Ns-321 Marine Weather Routing 3
15

Third Year
Summer Course Credit Hours
Yo-403 SVO Co-op III (80 days sail time) 3
Cr-313 SVO Training Cruise (Bowdoin)
(12 days sail time) 2





Fourth Year
Fall Semester Course Credit Hours
Ns-461 Casualty Analysis 3
Ns-491 Terrestrial Navigation III 3
Ns-497 Watchkeeping Limited Tonnage 3
General Education Elective 3
General Education Elective 3
Pe-XXX Advanced Sail Vessel Handling .5
15.5


Fourth Year
Spring Semester Course Credit Hours

Hc-232 Management Communications 3
Md-310 Ship’s Medicine 3
Ns-499 Topics in Marine Transportation 2
Business Elective 3
General Education Elective 3
Ns-XXX Sail Vessel Casualties 2
16

Grand Total (4 years) 123 + 14 (Co-ops and Cruises) = 137
Total 262 days sail time possible with cruise and co-ops

For more information contact: Captain Andy Chase at achase@mma.edu  or visit our Web-site at http://bell.mma.edu/~achase/Aux_Sail_Curriculum.html