Navy Offshore Sailing Program to Commission Newly Donated Racing Vessel for Sail Training
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The U.S. Naval Academy will hold a commissioning and re-naming ceremony for a recently donated high-performance sail training vessel on Friday, April 6th at 12:30 p.m. at the Robert Crown Sailing Center, headquarters for the Naval Academy sail training program. The event is open to the public.
The 40-foot J122 racing sailboat was donated by Marc Glimcher, a world class sailor and an authority on fine art based in Manhattan, N.Y. The vessel will be commissioned and renamed Dolphin in honor of the late Rear Admiral Henry Morgan. Rear Admiral Morgan was a devoted volunteer to the U.S. Naval Academy’s Varsity Offshore Sailing Team dedicating hundreds of hours a year over the past two decades to the sailing program. The name Dolphin is a legacy within the Morgan family in which young Henry first learned how to sail on a NY32 named Dolphin in the 1930’s off the shores of Long Island.
The Naval Academy Sailing Center is home to a number of world-class training programs, including Plebe Basic Sail Training and Offshore Training Program, plus the highly competitive Intercollegiate and Varsity Offshore sailing teams.
The Varsity Offshore Sailing Team competes in intercollegiate big boat regattas, many of which are hosted by the Naval Academy, as well as outside competition, both locally on the Chesapeake Bay and on the Eastern seaboard in the summer. The Offshore Sailing Team's fleet consists of a fleet of specially designed and built Navy 44-foot racing and sail training boats, a number of Colgate 26's plus several high performance racing vessels donated to the Naval Academy. The new Dolphin is one of those donated vessels.
The Offshore Training Squadron is an optional summer training program for third class midshipmen crews to get experiential training in ocean sailing, seamanship, navigation, leadership and teamwork.
During the summer, the Offshore Training Squadron sends the sail training craft, Navy 44s, crewed by third class (sophomore) midshipmen and led by first class (senior) midshipmen, USNA faculty, staff or civilian volunteers to various ports up the east coast for four, four-week long training blocks. Week one is midshipmen training at USNA, weeks two through four will be local area training and the offshore passage, port visit and return.
Founded in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy today is a prestigious four-year service academy that prepares midshipmen morally, mentally and physically to be professional officers in the naval service. More than 4,400 men and women representing every state in the U.S. and several foreign countries make up the student body, known as the Brigade of Midshipmen. Midshipmen learn from military and civilian instructors and participate in intercollegiate varsity sports and extracurricular activities. They also study subjects like small arms, drill, seamanship and navigation, tactics, naval engineering and weapons, leadership, ethics and military law. Upon graduation, midshipmen earn a federally funded Bachelor of Science degree in a choice of 23 different subject majors and go on to serve at least five years of exciting and rewarding service as commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps
For more information on the Naval Academy’s sail training and donated boat program go to their website at http://www.usna.edu/SailingTeam/index.php. For more information about the Naval Academy, please visit: www.usna.edu or our Facebook page.
Visitors to the Naval Academy wishing to attend the commissioning may walk through Gate 1 (King George Street) and Gate 3 (Maryland Avenue) of the academy and will be required to show valid, government-issued picture identification. Vehicles without Department of Defense decals are not permitted on Naval Academy grounds. Authorized vehicles may enter through Gate 1 (King George Street) or Gate 8 (Maryland Route 450). Handicapped visitors with proper decals and identification are permitted through Gate 1 during normal business hours and may be subject to a vehicle inspection. All bags are subject to search.
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