wooden boat. Gaff rigged- very tidy. And I like the ratbars instead of ratlines. Makes going aloft much more pleasant…

I fell in love with a smaller schooner years ago. Classic lines, but a more modern rig- the standing rigging is stainless with turnbuckles, instead of the wooden deadeyes there, and aluminum masts instead of wooden- but with proper wooden spars. Fore-and-aft rig, but with a square forecourse, mostly so we could run a rope swing off the yardarm. So I guess she was actually a hermaphrodite brigantine, rather than a schooner, but who’s keeping score. And the greatest sin of all was she has a fiberglass hull. Product of Fong Kuo shipyard in 1978, built as a fishing vessel, but refit for 10 passengers. 101’, 69t. Back before I retired from diving, my wife and I made some money cleaning her bottom now and again- but that’s another story altogether…

She lives in Grenada, and still works the passenger trade 48 weeks a year. I miss her: her name is Diamant… Gotta find a picture or two. I like big boats and I cannot lie. She’s purty with that Yankee (the trapezoidal staysail) flying, and she flat scoots, being that light…

Made it home intact, and decided not to zero out my phone. Didn’t get hassled, either, because there were other people who weren’t in on the joke for them to screw with.