Minimalist Voyaging Under Sail: 1

As sailing yachts used for cruising grow in size, the idea of "doing it simply" gets lost in the clutter of marketing and must haves. Smaller sailboats and simple cruising plans are less expensive than one may expect. Minimalist isn't by definition cramped, uncomfortable and/or crude. It can be quite comfy.

As a starting point, we cruised in the early 1960s aboard a very large yacht for it's time, a 48 foot yawl. She had about the same interior space a contemporary 40 footer. We had no pressure water or refrigeration and we towed a 13 foot wooden dinghy with a 3 hp outboard. The spars were solid spruce and the sails cotton.  Oh, yeah, we had 12 volt lights but generally illuminated the galley and main cabin with Coleman camp lanterns.

Mom, dad, four little kids and the dog lived aboard comfortably sailing between New England and the Bahamas/Florida.

Anchored off the light at Great Stirrup Cay, 1961