A few years back I actually owned a Friendship Sloop. Named the Coast O’ Maine, it was a 36′ wooden gaff-rigged sloop built in 1967 in Ipswich Mass. It had a sordid history including the original owner dying at sea after being hit by the boom and knocked overboard to being used by 3 convicts as an escape vehicle on the Piscataqua River on the Maine/NH border. It now resides up near or on Lake Ontario from last reports.
The friendship sloop dates back before 1900 and was originally used as a lobster/fishing boat on the coast of Maine. In this article in Wooden Boat Magazine, Harold Burnham is featured. Great story. I met Harold a few years ago while a Friendship Sloop owner and member of the Friendship Sloop Society. Click the link to read the story “Lobstering Under Sail”.
Harold Burnham Lobstering on the friendship sloop ‘Chrissy’ out around Gloucester, Massachusetts



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