Finest Kind

Asking price: $18,000

• Year: 1979
• Length on deck: 22′
• Hull: Cedar on oak
• Engine: 9 hp Mercury 4-stroke, XL shaft (2001)
• Dual-axle trailer included
• Location: Langley, WA

The Friendship Sloop design originated in the town of Friendship, Maine in the 1880s as a vessel that could easily be single-handed while hauling lobster traps under sail. They are very stable for their size and a wonderful compact voyager that performs well in light and heavy breeze.

Finest Kind was built by Sam Guild in Cushing, Maine. She is a gaff sloop with double headsails and a club topsail. She has spruce spars, booms, and bowsprit; her hull is carvel planked with cedar and bronze fastened to oak frames on an oak backbone. Her decks are glue-laid pine over plywood with a Dynel-covered cabin top. Her cockpit is self-draining.

Extensive 2023–2025 refit and repairs beneath the waterline, including all new silicone bronze fasteners (over 1,000 of them) and cotton caulking. Tightening of keel bolts, gripe, and fore deadwood. New bottom and topside paint. Restoration notes and pictures available on request.

Down below, Finest Kind has a small galley and sleeps two; the interior is mahogany trimmed. There is a rope locker in the forepeak; aft of that, a chart table and stowage area to starboard and a seat opposite. The main cabin has a settee/berth along the starboard side which folds out to form a double berth. A canvas pilot berth may be fitted opposite to port. The galley area aft contains a maple and cherry butcher block counter, dry sink, and stowage drawers.

Little-used sails, sail cover, and sunshade included. Lots of extras. Contact for more details and photos.