From the 1940s to today...
Ever notice the flotilla of small, gray-hulled ships that the Navy operates on the Severn River and the northern part of Chesapeake Bay? The vessels are known technically as yard patrol craft—or YPs, in Navy lingo—and they’re there to help provide Naval Academy midshipmen with more practical experience in shiphandling and seamanship.
But if some of the vessels look a little bit bulkier—and visibly more modern—than the ones you’ve been watching for years, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. The Academy has been phasing in a next-generation replacement for the venerable training ships, and if your binoculars are handy, these new vessels are worth a second look.
The new, 119-foot YPs are longer, beamier, and deeper-draft than their older siblings. They have a noticeably boxier superstructure. Their rub-rail forms a conspicuous black frame around the entire vessel. And their hull numbers, such as YP 703, are painted in solid black rather than in the white with black shadow that adorns earlier-era naval vessels.
But that’s just the outside. In the pilothouse and in the spaces below, there’s a night-and-day difference between the newer YPs and the older ones that have become so familiar on the Bay. The new models are roomier, far better-equipped, and crammed with decidedly more up-to-date navigation systems, engines, and safety and pollution-control systems.
Chartplotters and joy-sticks have replaced the old plotting-boards and ship’s wheel, and the helm station is equipped with electronic control consoles, all-electric throttles. There’s a lot more room for midshipmen’s berths, a galley and mess tables, and uniforms. The fire-suppression gear is more sophisticated and more effective.
On weekdays, midshipmen get underway for hour-and-a-half to two-hour trips on the Severn, putting into practice the shiphandling, navigation, engineering, and operations skills that they’ve learned in the classroom. First classmen (seniors) are given officer responsibilities, while younger Mids serve as crew members and deckhands.
The underway operations are supervised by a team of craftmasters, as the Navy calls them: active-duty enlisted personnel who themselves have been given intensive training in YP operations. The new YPs can accommodate two active-duty officers, six enlisted personnel, two civilian instructors, and 30 midshipmen.
But the flotillas and individual YPs aren’t limited to the Severn River or even to the Bay. During summers and academic breaks, the Mids sign up for training cruises to Newport, RI, Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, and Baltimore, which give them bluewater experience and a more realistic laboratory for polishing their leadership skills.
The YPs originated after the Japanese attack in Pearl Harbor in 1941, when the Navy leased commercial tuna-fishing boats from California to patrol the waters off U.S. coasts and the Panama Canal. Some served in U.S. Navy operations in the Pacific, including Guadalcanal. The Navy acquired its own YPs after the war and has maintained them ever since.
Despite their many improvements, the new 703-class YPs do have one disadvantage that their predecessors didn’t display: Their higher and broader superstructure makes them more difficult to control in a strong breeze, a characteristic that inadvertently gives the Midshipmen a taste of how sensitive a mariner must be to unexpected developments.
But the YPs are training ships, not combat vessels, and instructors and midshipmen agree that the new version is far better designed for that mission than the old, giving them hands-on experience that often isn’t available to them during summer training cruises on large warships.
The YP replacement program began in the early 2000s, when it became clear that the older training vessels, some of which had been in service for 33 years, were wearing out. The first new 703-class YP arrived in Annapolis in 2010. Today there are six. Eighteen of the older models are still in use, but they’re scheduled for retirement by 2025.
by Captain Art Pine
Thursday, November 3, 2016 - 09:35
From the 1940s to today...
Ever notice the flotilla of small, gray-hulled ships that the Navy operates on the Severn River and the northern part of Chesapeake Bay? The vessels are known technically as yard patrol craft—or YPs, in Navy lingo—and they’re there to help provide Naval Academy midshipmen with more practical experience in shiphandling and seamanship.
But if some of the vessels look a little bit bulkier—and visibly more modern—than the ones you’ve been watching for years, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. The Academy has been phasing in a next-generation replacement for the venerable training ships, and if your binoculars are handy, these new vessels are worth a second look.
The new, 119-foot YPs are longer, beamier, and deeper-draft than their older siblings. They have a noticeably boxier superstructure. Their rub-rail forms a conspicuous black frame around the entire vessel. And their hull numbers, such as YP 703, are painted in solid black rather than in the white with black shadow that adorns earlier-era naval vessels.
But that’s just the outside. In the pilothouse and in the spaces below, there’s a night-and-day difference between the newer YPs and the older ones that have become so familiar on the Bay. The new models are roomier, far better-equipped, and crammed with decidedly more up-to-date navigation systems, engines, and safety and pollution-control systems.
Chartplotters and joy-sticks have replaced the old plotting-boards and ship’s wheel, and the helm station is equipped with electronic control consoles, all-electric throttles. There’s a lot more room for midshipmen’s berths, a galley and mess tables, and uniforms. The fire-suppression gear is more sophisticated and more effective.
On weekdays, midshipmen get underway for hour-and-a-half to two-hour trips on the Severn, putting into practice the shiphandling, navigation, engineering, and operations skills that they’ve learned in the classroom. First classmen (seniors) are given officer responsibilities, while younger Mids serve as crew members and deckhands.
The underway operations are supervised by a team of craftmasters, as the Navy calls them: active-duty enlisted personnel who themselves have been given intensive training in YP operations. The new YPs can accommodate two active-duty officers, six enlisted personnel, two civilian instructors, and 30 midshipmen.
But the flotillas and individual YPs aren’t limited to the Severn River or even to the Bay. During summers and academic breaks, the Mids sign up for training cruises to Newport, RI, Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, and Baltimore, which give them bluewater experience and a more realistic laboratory for polishing their leadership skills.
The YPs originated after the Japanese attack in Pearl Harbor in 1941, when the Navy leased commercial tuna-fishing boats from California to patrol the waters off U.S. coasts and the Panama Canal. Some served in U.S. Navy operations in the Pacific, including Guadalcanal. The Navy acquired its own YPs after the war and has maintained them ever since.
Despite their many improvements, the new 703-class YPs do have one disadvantage that their predecessors didn’t display: Their higher and broader superstructure makes them more difficult to control in a strong breeze, a characteristic that inadvertently gives the Midshipmen a taste of how sensitive a mariner must be to unexpected developments.
But the YPs are training ships, not combat vessels, and instructors and midshipmen agree that the new version is far better designed for that mission than the old, giving them hands-on experience that often isn’t available to them during summer training cruises on large warships.
The YP replacement program began in the early 2000s, when it became clear that the older training vessels, some of which had been in service for 33 years, were wearing out. The first new 703-class YP arrived in Annapolis in 2010. Today there are six. Eighteen of the older models are still in use, but they’re scheduled for retirement by 2025.
by Captain Art Pine