Barque · Japan
Nippon Maru II
A Japanese four-masted training barque of 1984, three times winner of the Boston Teapot Trophy.
Technical data
- Rig
- Barque
- Flag
- Japan
- Home port
- Tokio
- Built
- 1984
- Shipyard
- Sumitomo Heavy Industries Uraga Shipyard
- Hull material
- Steel
- Length
- 110.1 m
- Beam
- 13.8 m
- Sail area
- 2,760 m²
- Sailing area
- Pacific Ocean
Designed and built by Sumitomo Heavy Industries as a replacement for Nippon Maru I, decommissioned from active service as a sail training ship in 1984.
Her design was developed in test tanks and a wind tunnel using computer calculations; she was launched on 15 February 1984 and commissioned on 16 September 1984 in the presence of the Crown Prince and Princess of Japan as a training ship for merchant navy officer cadets.
She represented Japan at the Australian bicentennial tall ship gathering in January 1988 and took part in the Kagoshima to Osaka Tall Ships Race and Sail Osaka in 1997.
Up to 2000 she was awarded the International Sail Training Association's Boston Teapot Trophy three times — in 1986, 1989 and 1993 — for the training ship covering the most miles under sail over 124 hours in the year.
The word Nippon means Japan; Maru is appended to most Japanese merchant vessels and is a term of endearment that also conveys the idea of endeavour.