Minimum Boat

Some people actually think that going out on the water in a hunk of wood is fun. The Minimum Boat is a collection of anecdotes and columns from Sam Llewellyn about the joys of small boats in today's world of ever-increasingly large boats. Calling for a return to the tiny boats and a call to make sailing fun again, he comes with plenty of stories to make even the most easily sea-sick want to go out on the water. The Minimum Boat is a treasure trove any amateur or professional sailor will love.--Midwest Book Review

The Joy of Simple Sailing: If you own a big, well-appointed but complicated boat you may well find yourself futzing with the wiring or plumbing more than doing any actual sailing. Even when safe at home, ensconsed in your armchair, you'll probably be poring over manuals instead of enjoying the pleasures of reading a good book like Sam Llewellyn's The Minimum Boat. Llewellyn, a regular contributor to SAILING magazine, preaches the joy of sailing small, simple boats with the conviction of an evangelical but with the humor of a Twain-esque storyteller. To demonstrate, he takes readers aboard his own "Minimum Boat," a Cornish Shrimper named Daisy. With the boat as an example, Llewellyn shows readers how to sail with not much more than a guitar and a good bucket, and how small sailing equals big fun. Part paean to simple sailing, part lighthearted screed against modern, big-boat aesthetics, The Minimum Boat is about as much fun to read as it is to mess about in a small boat.--Sailing

This quirky, lighthearted compilation brings together many of nautical-thriller writer Sam Llewellyn’s articles for Practical Boat Owner magazine. Owner of a traditional Drascombe Lugger, Llewellyn is an advocate of keeping sailing simple, and in this wonderful collection of nautical observations, he promotes the minimalist boating lifestyle -- while poking gentle fun at the expensive, complicated, ostentatious forms of sailing. Shunning the use of in-mast furling systems, passionately against the replacement of shrimping nets with walk-in freezers, and perplexed by sailors who spend more time fixing the hot water system than getting their hands on the tiller, Sam Llewellyn seeks to realign seafaring priorities that have become bizarre.Llewellyn’s sage and loony meditations on subjects as diverse as anchoring, fishing, alcohol, and marine sanitation will appeal to anyone who has ever balked at fixing the head but believes that there is nothing, simply nothing, worth doing as much as messing around in boats.Laced with humor and tongue-in-cheek jibes, and illustrated throughout by cartoons from the inimitable Mike Peyton, this is the ideal bunkside read for those who are attracted to the traditional way of sailing and keeping things simple (and cheap!) on the water.