All of a sudden day boats are the rage. Traditionally Maine day boats were simple lobster boat or bass boat types for day tripping, island excursions and days on isolated beaches. Sometimes they were used for commuting to and from summer residences on the islands. Everyone seems to be coming out with a version of this veritable old concept. One of the finest designs from the classic era would be perfectly suited to "day boat" use. This is the 40' ESCORT designed in 1940 by Sparkman & Stephens.

Daniel Skira's LITTLE GLORIANA is 28' 4" overall from the tip of her bowsprit to the after end of her boom, 22' 9" on deck, and 15' 3" on the waterline, with a beam of 4" 9" and drawing 4' 3". Her displacement light is 2553 lb., 57% of which is in the external lead ballast keel. With four or five young sailors in the cockpit, or with two or three adults, LITTLE GLORIANA is expected to displace 2994 lb. making the ballast 49% of the displacement.

Perhaps the design whose building I have most enjoyed was an L. Francis Herreshoff 33' Clipper bowed ketch of the ARAMINTA design. I have been told by old friends of Mr. Herreshoff that the ARAMINTA was LFH's favorite among his own designs. She is the smallest of his clipper bowed series to have been built. One might call the ARAMINTA a "toy TI." Yet the ARAMINTA, designed between 1949 and 1954, has lines that are sleeker and more refined than TI's. The ARAMINTA is an extremely fast design. At classic yacht regattas one often sees one or more of ARAMINTA's sisterships way up at the head of the fleet keeping up with far larger boats.