From the founder of this newsgroup and a reply from a member of the
yahoo group for ships. I found it rather enlightening and also
amusing.
________________________________
From: Chris J Brady
To: Marine History
Cc: Tallship Magazine ;
Soren" ;
Tall-Ships Mailing List ; Tall Ship
Friends
Sent: Mon, February 1, 2010 2:38:23 PM
Subject: [tall-ships] Tall Ship Organisation Bans Couples

In these credit crunch times when it might be expected that the
expense of running a tall ship operation might mean that everyone is
welcome, especially adults who can and do pay-up-front to be sail
trainees or voyage crew members. However we are astonished that there
are some tall ship organisations that ban outright couples (straight
or gay), and if a romantic liaison forms mid-voyage are then summarily
kicked off the ship (presumably in a distant port far from home). That
is appalling discrimination.

We found this statement on a tall ship web site:

Quote

The [name of ship] does not accept couples as trainee applicants on
the our World Voyages. We make no exceptions.

The reason for this policy is that couples, particularly life
partners, typically and naturally put their relationship with each
other above their individual relationships with the ship.They usually
form a closed social unit, and, even if they make an effort not to be
one, are often treated as a closed unit by the rest of the crew. While
perfectly natural, this dynamic prevents couples from focusing
primarily on their roles as trainees, the needs of the ship and their
shipmates. Since their roles as crew members require their full
attention at all times, we have found that the couple dynamic has a
destructive and even corrosive social effect on the [name of ship]
crew as a whole.

On past World Voyages, we have made exceptions to this policy. Each
time, we and typically the couple in question, have been genuinely
disappointed. The group cohesion suffered, individuals suffered, and
typically, the couple involved were unhappy with their experience as
well. Nobody ended up very pleased.

Many other ships and maritime organizations have had the same or a
similar policy. Examples include the Brigantine Yankee, Brigantine
Romance, Sea Education Association (SEA), Royal Canadian Navy, U.S.
Navy, U.S. Coast Guard Ship Eagle, and the Danish School Ship Danmark.
Many of these ships will discharge couples should they form after a
voyage begins.

End of quote.

The statement above lists various Navies and the US Coastguard's Eagle
- all of which for obvious reasons do not offer sail training to the
public - and so mention of these is invalid.

But we are surprised that privately owned ships are listed. We wonder
where they get their paying public from to keep these vessels afloat.

CJB.

Seeing things like this always reminds me of an anecdote heard about
the trans-siberian railways back in the day of steam. A particular
journey had had its bundant share of delays with trees downed, snowed
and iced tracks, coal issues etc when an obviously pregnant lady
approached the steward asking when the train was likely to reach its
destination point, to which the steward said

"Madam, maybe in your current condition it was not wise to take this
train"

Her reply "When I boarded this train, I was not in this condition!"