The September issue of SpinSheet includes a closer look at the new batch of Navy 44s which will begin arriving in Annapolis next month. This is the fourth round of 44-foot training boats at the Academy since World War II. Mahogany Luders yawls came first and were eventually replaced by a fleet of fiberglass Luders yawls. In the late 1980s, the yawls were replaced by sturdy fiberglass sloops, the current "MKI" Navy 44s. These boats will be replaced over the next few years by a new fleet of 20 MKII 44s.
So... what happens to the old boats after they rotate away from Annapolis?
Several of the Academy’s older Luders yawls can be found in service around the world. According to the good folks at www.navypaxsail.com/Yawls, at least six of the wooden boats have been recently reported alive and well in homeports including San Diego, Washington state, and Gloucester, MA. The fiberglass yawls are spread even further afield in ports including Guam, Chile, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A pair of them, Alert and Vigilant, are actively sailed by the Navy Patuxent Sailing Club out of the Naval Air Station Patuxent River.
A pair of the 44 MKI sloops took leave of Annapolis before the first MKII sloop even hit the water. Lively and Vigilant were trucked to San Diego and spent the summer transiting up the west coast toward their new home with the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Washington. Rotating crews of midshipmen handled the deliveries north along the coast.
Navy 44s Lively and Vigilant sailing in San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge as backdrop.
Photo by Latitude 38.
America's Cup Panel Discussion and film footage organized by the 
The September issue of SpinSheet magazine arrived from the printer this morning and the distribution crew is working hard to get it distributed throughout the mid-Atlantic in time for the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend. 
