The Shearwater at Sail
Leadership44: Sturdy and Progressive
From Morris Yachts comes a U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadet trainer that might just tempt sailors to return to school. Click to read full article. Click to view the full Christening Photo Gallery

Shearwater Christening & Launch marks milestone in Campaign
by CAPT John Maxham (Ret), ’66, L-44 Campaign Director
“I hereby christen you Shearwater.” With those words, Mrs. Betsy Burhoe, wife of CGA Superintendent RADM J. Scott Burhoe, broke a bottle of champagne over the bow plate of Hull L44-01 to christen the Academy’s first new Leadership 44 coastal sail training vessel.

The June 2nd christening and launching ceremony marked a historic milestone in the project to replace the Academy’s aging Luders fleet. Shearwater is the first of eight new sail training vessels designed by Pedrick Yacht Designs and built by Morris Yachts in Trenton, ME. The eight new vessels will allow the Academy to train 100% of the cadets in the summer coastal sail training program and will expand sailing opportunities for cadets throughout the school year. Click to read full article. First United States Coast Guard Academy Leadership 44 Training Vessel Scheduled To Launch
Ceremony Commemorates First of Eight Sail Training Boats Built Through a Partnership of the Coast Guard Foundation, Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association, Coast Guard Academy Parents Association and United States Coast Guard Academy

The Coast Guard Foundation, the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association, the Coast Guard Academy Parents Association and the United States Coast Guard Academy, through a collaborative partnership, announced today that it will host the christening and launch of the United States Coast Guard Academy’s new sailing training vessel, L44-01 Shearwater, at the Coast Guard Academy Waterfront on Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm. As part of the Leadership 44 Campaign, the three non-profit organizations have raised nearly $6 million to build a new class of eight leadership sail training boats for the Coast Guard Academy. The event celebrates the launch of the first new vessel. The Leadership 44 boats will offer cadets the opportunity to learn the ways of the sea and provide valuable leadership and teamwork experience. Click to read full story Morris-built Leadership 44 Shearwater Send Off!
It has been almost two years in the making and Friday Shearwater will leave Morris Yachts for her career as a training vessel for the US Coast Guard Academy. To celebrate, on Wednesday, May 18th as part of the annual Service Open House, Morris Yachts invited the public to come view the boat and be a part of a send off celebration at 11am at the Morris Service yard in Bass Harbor. Click to read full story Good News in Tough Times
Whenever I see one of those videos of Coast Guard rescue swimmers jumping from a perfectly safe helicopter into towering waves to go save someone who probably shouldn’t be out to sea in the first place, I can’t help but think about perseverance in the face of adversity. Click to read full story Morris Yacht uses vacuum mold to create 8 Coast Guard sailboats
TRENTON, Maine — A new sailboat is taking shape at the Morris Yacht plant, a boat that will upgrade and enhance the training program at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Click to read full story. July 21, 2010 - Coast Guard Cadets Take to New England Waters On July 13, 2010, second-class cadets from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy made landfall aboard four Luders 44s at Harbour Court, summer station of the New York Yacht Club, and were treated to a bbq by the Coast Guard Foundation. Among its many ongoing projects, the Foundation has launched a campaign and raised more than half of $6.4 million needed to fund design and construction of a new fleet of sail-training sloops.
Click to download PDF and read more February 2010: - “We’re Building Boats” Leadership 44 Campaign is officially underway Well, after over 20 years of discussion about the replacement of our aged Luders fleet….We’re building boats! The Leadership 44 program is underway with the first boat anticipated by the end of this year. To say it has been a long haul would be an understatement; however it has been an exciting project, and one that in its fruition will affect every single Academy cadet for the next 15 to 20 years.
Click to download PDF and read more February 2010: - An introduction to Sailing & Seamanship Before a cadet ever steps foot on a Luders Yawl for participation in the Coastal Sail Training Program (CSTP), they have already participated in two small boat sail training programs: the Swab Summer Sailing Program and a one-week Ship-Handling course aboard the T-Boats during their 2/c summer. For those cadets who are unable to participate in the CSTP, there is the one-week Colgate 26 Small Keelboat Course. This article serves as an introduction to both the Swab Summer Sailing Program and the 2/c Summer sail training programs (excluding the CSTP, which is discussed in an article on page 34). The other seminal sail training experience is Eagle, which will be discussed in a later issue.
Click to download PDF and read more August 2009: - Morris Yachts chosen to build the CGA Leadership 44 Morris Yachts of Trenton, Maine has been chosen to build the new CGA Leadership 44 Coastal Sail Training vessel to replace our aged Luder fleet. The Procurement committee began meeting in January to look at all the options available to the project. Working with David Pedrick, the committee set out to develop a set of CGA specific plans and specifications that would reasonably reduce the overall cost of the Leadership 44 below that of the Navy version. The goal was to achieve this without sacrificing safety or performance. In choosing David Pedrick and his outstanding staff, the committee chose an internationally renowned naval architect who has led the design teams on 8 America’s Cup campaigns and produced two winners, Courageous in 1974 and Stars and Stripes in 1987. His work embodies the very best technical designs in the market today. The committee worked hard to develop a boat that will meet the rigorous demands of the Coastal Sail Training program and give the Academy a platform with excellent performance for years to come.
Click to download PDF and read more April 2009: - USCGA Leadership 44 Program For those of you who have missed the discussions over the last 20 years (at least) about replacing our fleet of Luder yawls, which have been in service since 1964, here is an update.

The U.S. Naval Academy replaced their Luder fleet in 1986 with the Navy 44 MKI and is in the process of replacing those boats with 24 new Navy 44 MKIIs built by Pearson Yachts and designed by David Pedrick. In early 2008 a group of CGA supporters and staff began looking at the possibility of piggy-backing on the Navy contract and contracting for eight boats to create our new Coastal Sail Training fleet. A fleet of 8 boats would allow the Academy to train 100% of the second-class cadets during their summer rotation. The replacement of the Luder fleet was moved to the number 1 priority on the Superintendent’s priority list, and in July of 2008 the Alumni Association voted to commit to the funding and purchase of a minimum of two of the new boats at a maximum of $750K per boat. The Coast Guard Foundation fundamentally committed to the same. The $750K figure was based on the anticipation of some increase in the Navy price but the final price was expected to be significantly lower than $750K. It also became apparent that we were not going to be able to deal in a timely fashion with Pearson, the current builder because of some issues with their Navy contract
Click to download PDF and read more December 2007: - USCGA EMBARKING ON SAILBOAT ACQUISITION TO SUPPORT CADET COASTAL SAIL TRAINING PROGRAM
The Academy is committed to having all second class cadets participate in the Coastal Sail Training Program (a.k.a. Luders) during their 2/c summer training period. The program is 12 days in length where groups of 5-6 cadets per vessel sail throughout New England on one of the Academy’s four Luder Yawls or a comparable donated sailing vessel. A qualified officer, senior enlisted, or CGA staff/faculty member is assigned as a Safety Officer, providing oversight and guidance as the cadets practice navigation, seamanship and sailing; gain experience in a small unit command environment; and gain valuable insight and contact with the boating public — one of the Coast Guard’s biggest customers — all while on the open waters of the New England coast. The hands on leadership experience, including serving as “mast captain,” brings many important opportunities to “learn at sea” just as early cadets did on Dobbin and Chase. Combining their navigational, seamanship and leadership skills during the trip is an ideal experience for all the 2/c cadets involved as they begin their last two years at the Academy in a senior leadership role within the Corps of Cadets.
Click to download PDF and read more December 2007: - Broadening Horizons: Lessons in Leadership and Seamanship So there I was aboard the mighty yacht Shearwater, a 44' Luder sailing vessel attached to the United States Coast Guard Academy, wondering if everything I learned in Nautical Science, Rules of the Road classes, Swab Summer sailing, and 3/c summer would culminate in my ability, as Watch Captain, to safely sail the Superintendent of the Academy, RADM Scott Burhoe, to Mystic, CT. Considering I have minimal experience in practical sailing other than a semester with the offshore sailing team Fourth Class year, this task seemed quite daunting. I was still pretty shaky on my navigation and sailing skills, and yet here I was leading a team of five cadets in the safe operation of a vessel with the Superintendent aboard. Shearwater slipped away from the pier and glided smoothly onto the brackish water of the Thames River and set sail. As we passed under the Gold Star Bridge and began to set sail, the tension I felt melted away. I could do this. After all, I am a cadet at one of the nation’s finest maritime institutions and had learned the basics of sailing in classes. Now I needed to apply them. Leading Shearwater, as part of the Academy’s Coastal Sailing Training Program (CSTP), turned out to be pivotal in my ability to internalize and practically apply the lessons in maritime navigation and safety I learned over the last two years.
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