Sail training

From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea (e.g., see Outward Bound), sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on and off the water.

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.

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 dates of arrival (which steam ships had started to guarantee) were of less importance. Finally as the Panama Canal was opened, sailing ships were used in parts of the world where steam ships still found it hard to operate, mainly on:

the Chilean nitrate trade (for fertilizers and explosive production in Europe), and on

the Australian grain trade.

Both Chilean and Australian ports were difficult to supply with coal for steamships to refuel. Also, both routes to Europe went round Cape Horn.

The end of the First World War saw a brief return to profitability as all ship types were in scarce supply due to wartime losses but that boom became bust as many new steam ships were built to replace the sailing ships that were lost.

Genesis in the 1930s

While many countries of the world operated sailing ships as training ships for officers in their merchant marine in the 1920s and 30s, several sailing ship owners such as Carl Laeisz and Gustaf Erikson determined that there was still a profit to be made from the last of the sailing ships.

Erikson purchased existing ships that required the minimum of capital investment and repaired them with parts cannibalised from other ships.