Sail training ships are useful inheritances, not first-priority purchases

Do sailing training ships help aspiring sailors learn seafaring skills?

Yes, but they are worth retaining rather than necessarily worth buying ahead of a modern systems-training ship.

Established sailing trainers offer practical seafaring lessons and institutional appeal. If one already exists and remains serviceable, it should be used. A navy without one, however, would get more direct value from a modern training ship equipped with engines and systems resembling those sailors will operate in the fleet. Sail training is therefore a useful inherited capability, not automatically the first call on new procurement money.