The late Roger Angell came to mind when I saw this small boat sailing in Great Cove recently. I think that it might be SEAL, a “12 ½” (foot at the waterline) Herreshoff used by the WoodenBoat School to teach sailing.
As you may know, Roger was a senior editor and writer at the New Yorker Magazine and beloved summer resident of Brooklin, Maine, among other significant things. He wrote the following in the Magazine about sailing on his 12 ½ Herreshoff, SHADOW, with a “nonsailing friend” in the waters off Brooklin:
“It can’t be helped, but sailing is exclusive. What the landsman senses and perhaps envies is exactly what grabs me at odd moments in a small boat in August. Here – for the length of this puff, this lift and heel – I am almost in touch with the motions of my planet: not at one with them but riding a little crest and enjoying the view. I smile across at my friend but say nothing. Eat your heart out, pal.”
(Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 3, 2025.) Click on the image to enlarge it.