Minimum Boat

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.