The Grand Harbour of Valletta is no stranger to visiting navy ships of all nations, and it has often been dubbed in many online blogs as one of “the friendliest ports” of the Mediterranean.

So, it was no surprise recently when the Italian Navy’s Chief Petty Officers’ School of Taranto scheduled yet another port call to Valletta for its “Corsaro II” training ship after a long period of navigation around the Mediterranean. The training vessel is a ketch measuring 22 metres with abeam of 4.9 metres, and is commanded by Captain Francesco Carlo Rizzo di Grado e di Premuda. The “Corsaro II” has a chequered service history which saw it cross oceans and represent the Italian Navy many prestigious sail ship events. This shool ship aims to facilitate the cadets sailing and teamwork skills.

At present, another Italian Navy ship is in harbour, the “Orsa Maggiore”, which is at present conducting 76 days of instruction by its 9 man crew for 10 midshipmen from the Italian Naval Academy. They have also made port calls to other major harbours around the Mediterranean coasts. Having started from Ancona, the school ship will be leaving Malta on August 16th to return to its homeberth in Livorno.

Built in 1994 by the renowned Venetian shipyards of Tencara, the “Orsa Maggiore” is the youngest in the fleet and is commanded by Capitano Paolo Barbarotto. Just like the “Corsaro II”, this ocean-going racing yacht offers maximum safety and security in all weather conditions. The 28.3-metre hull’s construction includes strong yet light materials like carbon, kevlar, and fibreglass, making it lighter than wooden hulls of the same vessel’s class, and enabling it to reach starting speeds of 4 - 6 knots, with its 387 square metres of sail. Above deck operations were designed to be conducted by a normal 20 to 24 man crew with significant protection to the bow in the most adverse of weather.

This 80-ton training vessel is capable of interphasing with a nautical operations centre computer whilst being equipped with onboard state of the art navigational and safety equiment, like Inmarsat, GPS, HF and VHF radios. The “Orsa Maggiore” boasts of having circumnavigated the globe between 1996 and 1998, when it sailed 44, 000 miles and visited 43 ports in 19 different nations as part of the Sail Osaka and ISTA regattas. Among its other major achievements, this yacht won the 1994 Sail Indonesia, the Atlantic ISTA regatta of 1998, and the first place in the 2004 Tall Ship Race between Anversa, Aalborg, Stavanger and Cuxhaven.