Richard C wrote:

Didn't he refit a schooner foremast to square rigged? Or was it
aviation writer Ernest K Gann who did that. A flagpole company lathe
turned the spars. I have a Hayden book and Gann's only boat book, but
not a good memory.


Ernest K. Gann wrote a number of sailing-related books, but if you're
thinking of "Song Of The Sirens" which describes (among other things)
his re-rigging a Danish school ship as a hermaphrodite brig, that's
his best IMHO.

Hayden had some good sailing stories, but he was also very wrapped up
the "romance" of doing everything the old-fashioned way. He also had a
lot of whiny excuses about why his life turned out the way it did, and
why he had to flee the country.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King