YAG training vessels

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	YAG-300 class training vessels

Class Overview
Class Type	Training
Launched	1954-1958
Succeeded By	Orca class training vessel

YAG (Yard Auxiliary, General) training vessels are 75 ft 3 in. wooden boats built between 1954 and 1958, and based at CFB Esquimalt in Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada. The vessels are used for training Canadian Forces regular naval officers, naval reservists, and members of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets in basic seamanship, vessel handling, and navigation. According to DND, "in 2000, a total of 1830 personnel were deployed on the YAGs for a total of 585 days and steamed over 25,000 nautical miles in support of training."[1]

[edit] Layout

YAGs displace 70 tonnes, and are divided into five major below-decks compartments: right forward, a chain locker, then the forward cabin, containing the galley, one of the heads (washrooms) and the officer's eating and sleeping areas, as well as the gyroscopic (gyro) compass.

Roughly midships, just aft of the forward cabin, is the engine room, containing twin Detroit 6-71 diesels, as well as a separate diesel generator and a fixed pump.

Aft of the engine room is the after cabin. Depending on the YAG, it may sleep up to fourteen people, and contains the other head, and a rarely-used shower. Two layers of bunks run along the hull, with a table on the centreline. Right aft is tiller flats, containing part of the waste water treatment system and various general storage.

Above decks, one finds the wheelhouse, mounted on the forward cabin's coaming, aft of that, the exposed breezeway, and, mounted on the after cabin's coaming, a Zodiac launch. Above the wheelhouse is an open bridge, fitted with chart table and a gyro compass repeater.

They have a forward and aft sleeping cabins. Also in the forward cabin is the galley for the ships company. In both the forward and rear compartments there is one head and in the aft there is also a shower.

[edit] Future of the YAGs

These vessels are scheduled to be replaced by the new Orca class training vessels. The first vessel, Orca, was launched August 9, 2006 at Victoria Shipyard in Esquimalt, British Columbia and was handed over to the Navy on November 17, 2006.