Yacht and fishing clubs connected the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve with civilians who already had conning and inshore experience. That knowledge could support wartime command of trawlers and Flower-class corvettes. Professional merchant mariners could not simply fill every naval vacancy because merchant ships still needed them, while the most experienced personnel were also wanted for larger vessels. The criticism of folding away the separate RNVR is that it weakened both that recruitment network and a civilian constituency able to advocate for the navy.
Notable Point · 3:41:02-3:42:36
Why the RNVR's yachtsmen mattered in wartime small-ship command
Civilian small-craft experience supplied wartime naval commanders while merchant shipping retained its own need for professional seafarers.