The Friendship Sloop, a small sailboat for lobstering and coastal fishing, was developed in Maine in the early 1880s based on the design of fishing ketches from Gloucester, Massachusetts. The sloop features a distinctive mast placement and gaff-rig. Today, the sloop is popular for day charters and races organized by the Friendship Sloop Society.
In the lobstering and fishing communities of Friendship and Bremen, on the Maine coast, sometime in the early 1880s, the idea of a rigged sloop for transporting lobsters and for commercial coastal fishing arose. This small sailboat, called the Friendship Sloop, was based on the design of the fishing ketches that sailed from Gloucester, Massachusetts. The Gloucester boats had been fishing on the Georges Bank just below Newfoundland, for some 20 to 25 years before, and were clearly equipped for the high winds and heavy seas of the open ocean.
The Friendship sloop is a small, single-masted sailing vessel with a four-corner sail mounted fore and aft, with, occasionally, an upper mast and fore-sails such as a jib and flying jib. A distinctive feature of the sloop is that the mast is set back from the bow by approximately one-third the length of the ship. The gaff-rig is a stringer, or gaff, from which the top side of the mainsail is hung. This gaff gives the mainsail more strength and versatility, while allowing a topsail to be set above it, if desired.
Amity Sloops instantly rose to popularity off the Maine coast as a highly maneuverable all-weather inshore fishing boat and lobster boat. Rarely built higher than 31 feet (9.45 meters), averaging 28 to 30 feet (8.53 to 9.14 meters), its small size limited the Amistad slope to one- or two-day trips, in the best case. Although strong, these ships were not designed for the open sea.
Friendship sloops were built from the 1880s to the 1930s, when efficient gasoline engines made the use of strictly wind sloops and ketches obsolete for commercial fishing. Today the skirted-rigged sloop Friendship is a popular charter boat. Constructed of fiberglass, and usually powered by a small marine engine, still with the rigged mainsail and nonsensical lines of its progenitors, the Friendship drumsticks are a reminder of the old days of sailboats.
Commonly, the Amistad slopes, due to their limited amenities, are chartered for a day adventure cruise. After all, these glasses are based on a basic commercial design. However, chartering a friendly punt for a week or more is not unheard of, with two to three nights during the week ashore. Many original Friendship sloops have been converted from fishing boats to trading boats.
Of course, many Friendship sloops, both of original wooden construction and fiberglass fabrication, are privately owned. The Maine-based Friendship Sloop Society organizes races, events and social gatherings for the owners of these elegant boats. These sailors come from up and down the East Coast of the US to show off their seamanship, as well as their ships, and perhaps to relive a bygone era.
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