Email This Page to a FriendPreview: SELKIE—My Personal Dreamboat: A 23′ Keel-centerboard Sloop

I should say at the outset that I am a lazy sailor. Although I have the greatest admiration for the sight of a boat under a spectacular jackyard topsail, I can’t imagine mustering the gumption to put one up myself. That pretty much goes for a whole list of other sailing paraphernalia: spinnakers with poles, mizzen staysails, running bacstays, gaff headed sails, jibs out at the end of spidery bowsprits. I love to gaze upon these things, and am genuinely glad that someone is willing to put up with them; but for myself, I prefer to swish along in a boat that is simple and demands little exertion from me.