carl wrote:
Hey dont knock square riggers!
I would prefer them in most weather, only disadvantage is crew numbers
and not getting as close to the wind.

Oh, I wasn't knocking square riggers... I was just curious how far back
this "Trent D. Sanders" fellow was trying to push back the clock.
Holystoning the deck? Scurvy? Flogging the crew? Weevils in the bisquits?

Personally I love square riggers, only had a few opportunities to sail
on one but would go again in a heartbeat. But I wouldn't chose to live
that way long-term, and I think that sailing Luddites are (for the most
part) misinformed. After all it was a "good, solid, old-fashioned"
cruiser of the type often assumed to be super-seaworthy that sank like a
rock in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart race. The modern sleds got banged up but
survived.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King