CASTINE – The arctic schooner Bowdoin, as it has done so many times before, is heading north.

And, as in many of those voyages, it will be carrying a contingent of students who will learn the art and craft of sailing aboard the historic exploration vessel.

The 30-day sail training cruise is part of a course in the small-vessel operations program at Maine Maritime Academy designed as an introduction to the operation and maintenance of a large, traditional sailing vessel.

The Bowdoin will leave Castine on Thursday with stops planned at Prince Edward Island, Sable Island, Isle de la Madeleine and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, with a traverse of the Bras d’Or Lake.

Although the course is technically two months, students have been preparing all year for the trip. Earlier this month, they began working on the Bowdoin, scraping, painting, caulking, fitting out the vessel, learning the lines and the rigging, and learning to live together.

Last week they moved into their small berths onboard ship and began a series of shakedown cruises in Penobscot Bay, in order to become familiar with the vessel and to learn to work together.

“The goal of the course is to teach us something new every day,” said MMA sophomore Matt Mueller of Washington, D.C.

The students, who will sail with the Bowdoin’s six professional crew members, are younger than those who sailed on the first course cruise last year, according to John Worth, the master of the ship for this year’s cruise.

Some have just finished their first year at MMA, and there are two new high school graduates – soon to be MMA students – who will sail on this cruise. Most have had some sailing experience, but few have done much offshore sailing.

“That’s what the course was designed for. It’s an introduction to traditional sailing,” Worth said. “They get to put into practice some of the navigational stuff they’re starting to learn. They learn to plan a passage and dealing with the weather.”

Worth noted that they study meteorology and learn about the weather forecasting technology, an important factor when sailing offshore.

“For part of the trip, we’ll be about 100 miles offshore; they get to see and deal with the weather out there,” he said. “We’ve got a good combination of sails and they get to practice with them. We do a lot of safety drills. And they get experience working as a team to keep the vessel safe.”

That will be a different experience for many of the young sailors, most of whom are accustomed to solo sailing on small vessels.

“With single-handed sailing, it’s almost as if your body is sailing, you’re feeling every part of it,” said Alex Oakes of Spruce Head. “Here, you’re on the water, not in it. You’ve got to do a lot of things with other people. It’s very cool in that way. I’m going to learn a lot about being part of a crew.”

The Bowdoin sails with some new equipment this year, some traditional and some fancy new electronics.

Last year, MMA students made a new binnacle and binnacle cover to house the ship’s compass and a new “icebox,” the crow’s nest that sits atop the forward mast.

In addition, Maritimes Maine presented the college with new electronic equipment in honor of Rear Adm. Richard Rybacki, including a radio and an automatic identification system which combines GPS and VHS radio technology to broadcast its identity to other vessels, in addition to the ship’s position.

The Bowdoin also has a new Max Prop that was installed this summer. The propeller has folding blades that will reduce drag when the ship is sailing. It replaces the 42-inch fixed propeller that was part of the original design of the vessel when it was built for Adm. Donald MacMillan 85 years ago.

Although the Bowdoin has always been a sailing vessel, its motoring capabilities were important for MacMillan’s Arctic exploration work. But the large fixed propeller created a lot of drag when the Bowdoin was under sail, especially in light weather, Worth said.

The new propeller provides efficient propulsion under power, but eliminates the drag of the fixed prop, he said. The ship gets more speed when it’s sailing and steers better because there is no drag in front of the rudder.

“Mac powered a lot because of the work he was doing,” Worth said. “But we’re going to be able to sail more on this trip and sail more in the bay in the summer and in light air. It’s really wonderful for sail training.”

The ship is scheduled to arrive back in Castine on June 30, but its return will not end the sailing season.

The Bowdoin is scheduled for a number of shorter trips, some as fund-raisers for different organizations, and it will take two more two-week training cruises later this summer.