urther updates for two previous posts on the Lê Quý Đôn sailboat. The boat has started its delivery trip bounding for Cam Ranh, Viet Nam, manned by a mixed Polish – Vietnamese crew. The journey would round the Cape of Good Hope instead of transiting via the Suez canal. Some information on the boat, tonnage: 857 ton, length: 67 m, beam: 10 m, draft: 4 m, three masts with 1,400 m² of sail area, crew: 30 plus 80 training cadets, armament: 4 x 0.5 cal Browning machine gun.

n update to a previous post on Vietnam Navy training sailboat, construction and fitting are by now almost completed, delivery is estimated sometime next month in Cam Ranh port. The boat is named “Lê Quý Đôn”, after Vietnam 18^th – century prolific scholar and polymath, can see it clearly at the boat’s bow, still not sure which number (HQ – xx) would be assigned to this Naval training vessel. To be honest, I’m feeling envy with those 30 Vietnamese sailors being trained onboard that watercraft!

One may wonder what’s the role of sailboat training in modern naval warfare, where ones sit in air – conditioned rooms, in front of LCD displays, with high – tech missiles at their fingers’ control? First, sailboat training help forging a sailor’s strength, moral and will, second, it equips the soldiers with skills: rowing, swimming, other survival skills… so that in the worst case that could happen to their ship, they know that they could still survive. That would bring more confidence for them to do the utmost into a naval battle.

ccording to this very fascinating news: part 1, part 2 and part 3, Vietnam navy’s first (ever) training sailboat is being built at Conrad shipyard, Poland. Well, eventually, what I was thinking back many many years ago is being materialized, can’t imagine that this could be true! A navy longing to be strong should have its personnel trained, first and foremost, in this very harsh and rudimentary way as in the Age of Sail, just for the true spirits of seaman and seamanship.

The boat is speculated to be similar, but larger than this Zygmunt Choreń designed, 380 metric ton, schooner barque rigged, ORP Iskra (Polish naval training vessel Iskra, showed in the image below). Some information on the boat under construction: LOA: 67m, LWL: 58.3m, beam: 10m, draft: 4m, 3 masts (about 40m in height each), 1400 m² of sail area, with a crew of 30 plus 80 training cadets. The ship is planned to join Vietnam People’s Navy sometime in autumn this year.