Veterans of the Ocean Navigator at-sea training programs will recall early voyages aboard the steel schooners Corwith Cramer and Westward, which were chartered from the Sea Education Association (SEA) in Woods Hole, Mass. The school is now building a new vessel, which is modeled after the first two but integrates modern technology into the solid and seaworthy design of a deep-displacement hull and a combination square and schooner rig.
The new 119-foot schooner/brigantine, pictured at right and as yet unnamed, was designed by Briton Laurent Giles and is being built at J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding in Tacoma, Wash. It is scheduled to be launched in the spring of 2001 to serve SEA’s students as a platform for sail training and oceanographic research in the Caribbean and North Atlantic.