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As
a boy, I went from a dory to a peapod to a catboat to a Muscongus
Bay sloop to a Friendship sloop, and most of these boats didn’t
have engines. So although I didn’t even know what this "laying
to" maneuver was called, I instinctively found myself using
it for handling sail and reefing. I discovered the virtue of the
Friendship sloop as a fishing boat in a similar way. For the past
ten years, I’ve taken passengers out hauling traps, and over
those years I’ve learned that the Friendship sloop is an ideal
one for doing this work under sail. And I’ve learned, as I’ll
explain shortly, that one of this sloop’s greatest attributes,
in addition to its speed and its maneuverability, is its simple
ability to stop dead in the water with the sails still raised.
We’ll return to our fishing trip shortly. But first, here’s
some background on how I acquired my two sloops, and how I came
to this business of hauling traps under sail.
When I started building my first sloop, a 22-footer, in 1990 at
my shop in Essex, I should have listened to my father, who advised
me to make her 6 feet longer. At the time, however, there was a
lot I didn’t know. I was a merchant mariner back then, and
I didn’t know that between the foreign voyages I was making
and the distracting activities I was engaged in at home, it would
be two years before I finished that boat. I didn’t know that
by the time the boat was finished I would be married to the girl
I had begun building it to sail away from. And I didn’t know
when I got married that Kim (the bride) would get seasick the minute
she stepped aboard KIM (the boat). Once I figured all this out,
I know I was going to need an excuse to go sailing, and what better
excuse could there be than to make sailing a part of my livelihood.
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When
I started building my first sloop, a 22-footer, in 1990 at my shop
in Essex, I should have listened to my father, who advised me to
make her 6 feet longer. At the time, however, there was a lot I
didn’t know. I was a merchant mariner back then, and I didn’t
know that between the foreign voyages I was making and the distracting
activities I was engaged in at home, it would be two years before
I finished that boat. I didn’t know that by the time the boat
was finished I would be married to the girl I had begun building
it to sail away from. And I didn’t know when I got married
that Kim (the bride) would get seasick the minute she stepped aboard
KIM (the boat). Once I figured all this out, I know I was going
to need an excuse to go sailing, and what better excuse could there
be than to make sailing a part of my livelihood.
Chartering seemed like the thing to do, but it felt odd to me to
go sailing without any purpose. I needed something that would challenge
me and entertain my passengers while we were underway. Luckily,
the answer to my problem soon presented itself, as answers often
do.
As
I remember, I was crawling out of KIM’s lazarette one day when
I heard my neighbor’s motor sputtering. At the time, "young
John" was attempting to follow in the footsteps of his father
and grandfather as a commercial lobsterman. He had bought a new
motor for his skiff, made himself a dandy little winch, and was
really going at it. Unfortunately, things were not going well for
him that day, as his new motor was lying broken in the bottom of
his boat and the borrowed motor he had on the stern was barely running
on one cylinder. Being so close to home, it would seem John’s
troubles were about over, but this was not the case.
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