U.S. Navy midshipmen have long been taught the art of sailing, and have obtained from it lifelong skills and an understanding of the wind and the sea.

The tradition continued this summer for Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen during NROTC's annual Career-Orientation and Training for Midshipmen (CORTRAMID).

CORTRAMID is an event that all sophomore midshipmen on an NROTC scholarship take part in. The sailing programs at CORTRAMID were officially launched after the initial success of a 2014 NROTC pilot program which saw 398 midshipmen receive certification in Norfolk, Virginia, at Old Dominion University's Sailing Center. This past summer, the program was expanded to San Diego, and allowed 180 west coast attendees to attend sail training at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center on Santa Clara Point.

The Norfolk and San Diego programs both model a U.S. Sailing smallboat curriculum. Midshipmen are introduced to sailing basics such as boat terminology, knot-tying and how marine elements like the tide and the wind play crucial roles in successful sailing. The courses take three days to complete.

Each course begins with a tutorial "ground school," where students have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the basic components of sailboats, and practice rigging and derigging the equipment. They also receive instruction on fundamental sailing concepts that will allow them--once on the water--to move their boats forward, execute a turn and control their boat's speed and angle of movement.

At the Old Dominion Sailing Center, midshipmen also participate in a relay contest where students are divided into teams and timed on their ability to tie basic sailing knots. This knot-tying team exercise is designed to make learning knot-tying a fun activity while improving proficiency.

Once the students have been introduced to these basic concepts, the remainder of the day is mostly spent on the water learning such skills as docking and undocking from the pier, shoving off from the beach and returning and man overboard recovery.

The midshipmen's next two days consist of extensive on-the-water training that includes basic sailing drills such as follow-the-leader, the running of figure 8's through two buoys and exercises that emphasize sailboat control skills such as tacking, jibbing and learning to sail upwind.

Sail training teaches the Navy's future ship captains and pilots the importance of understanding the marine environment. It also teaches the midshipmen valuable lessons in teamwork and leadership; skills that they will need to lead Sailors and Marines.

It is the development of these skills that led the Navy to continue to include sailing as a basic core competency for all midshipmen in the most recent update of Naval Service Training Command's (NSTC) "Professional Core Competencies Guide," a guiding document in midshipmen education that outlines the particular skills and experiences midshipmen are required to obtain prior to graduation from their college or university and being commissioned in the U.S. Navy.

The importance of understanding sailing in the development of midshipmen was highlighted during Naval Service Training Command's online survey tool, Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI). This resulted in feedback from more than 710 military personnel in 11 different countries as to what skills and experiences they thought were necessary for midshipmen to have upon graduation and commission.

Once midshipmen complete their on-the-water training, they are tested on the sailing skills with a written exam.

This year, upon the program's conclusion, nearly 600 midshipmen at colleges and universities across the country obtained U.S. Sailing Smallboat Certification, which demonstrates that they have met the requirements of the U.S. Navy's Skipper B qualification. Not only does the certification demonstrate their basic proficiency with a sailboat and prove the holder's fundamental understanding of the maritime environment, it also allows midshipmen the opportunity to rent sailboats from the Navy's many Morale, Welfare and Recreation Centers (MWR), as well as non-DoD sailing centers and marinas.

The San Diego and Norfolk locations are ideal in that they both host two expansive and well-resourced sailing centers. Each provides midshipmen exceptional learning environments in which to practice the fundamentals of sailing.

The Mission Bay Aquatic Center houses more than 50 sailboats and is one of the largest instructional waterfront facilities in the world. The students at Mission Bay train on Sabot and Holder 14 sailboats.

The sailing facilities at Old Dominion feature an extended pier and boat-loading area that allow for as many as 35 FJ sailboats to be used in basic course sailing. Many of the sailing center's instructors are past or present members of the Old Dominion Sailing Team.

Sail training will continue to be integrated into the midshipmen CORTRAMID experience. Next year, NROTC plans to increase the number of midshipmen attending sail training on the west coast to more than 400 students. With the additional training of midshipmen on the west coast, the NROTC Sailing program anticipates reaching over 800 midshipmen in 2016.

Opportunities for midshipmen to receive sail training outside of the CORTRAMID experience also exist in the fall and spring months in Norfolk and year-round in San Diego.

Additional sailing resources for midshipmen are available on the web through NROTC's new sailing website, which allows midshipmen the ability to locate sailing schools, yacht clubs, races and other sailing events taking place around their local area. It also allows midshipmen the opportunity to join a sailing team and to take part in the races. Midshipmen can also access sailing news, media and other premier sailing websites to stay abreast of collegiate, national and international sailing events.

Sailing as just one of the many experiences midshipmen will encounter during their time in the NROTC program. These experiencese instill the core values, commitment and the knowledge that will be required of them in the fleet. NROTC Sailing is always looking to link midshipmen to local sailing resources in effort to provide continued support in building their sailing skills. It is a program priority to continue to build midshipmen's awareness of the local sailing expertise and resources available to them in their area. NROTC is excited to continue to work and partner with local sailing centers and yacht clubs interested in reaching out to midshipmen. Any parties interested in helping to develop these future Sailors, please contact Lt. Will Medick at william.medick@navy.mil.

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit http://www.navy.mil/.