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Are you a sloop fancier?   Do you own, or sail a sloop?  We'd love to hear all about it.

For those who are wondering what a sloop might be - although in olden times a sloop could have a number of masts, in these modern times the term sloop is used to define a yacht with only one mast, as we explain below. 
The one in the photograph was enjoying a steady breeze as she sailed towards St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
We'd really like to hear all about your sloop-sailing experiences.
What do you consider to be the advantages and disadvantages of the single masted yacht?
Tell us your funny or tragic stories, describe the sloop of your dreams and tell us why it is.

'Fore and aft' rigged, the sloop, in Western Europe, sets a single headsail, and was developed in parallel with the cutter. In the USA 'sloop' is also used to describe yachts with two headsails set which would be called 'cutters' almost everywhere else.
In the USA, what is described as a 'cutter' is the traditional vessel of that name, bearing a jib which could be reefed, set on a long bowsprit.

During the Second World War, 'sloop' was the term used to describe one of the smaller anti-submarine escorts that could be seen with the convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. This was a renaissance of the the use of the term 'sloop' which was used from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century to describe a different class of naval ship, one used for auxiliary duties. Until late in the eighteenth century, the term 'sloop' was bandied about in reference to a wide range of smaller naval vessels, none of which fitted properly into any particular class of small warship.

By the start of the nineteenth century, the range of boats termed 'sloop' had been whittled down to two classes of vessel: the three-masted 'ship sloop' and the 'brig sloop' of two masts, both types of vessel being square-rigged throughout.

By the end of the 1880s sloops had been phased out as a vessel of war by all the navies, although the British used them as sail-training vessels up until 1904.
In fact sloops were the last sailing vessels amongst naval ships, being superceded by motorised vessels.

Today, as we mentioned earlier, the term sloop is exclusively used to describe a vessel with one mast, a popular rig in many parts of the world.
We're looking forward to hearing all about you and your sloop experiences.
Don't worry about your talent as a writer, just tell us your story and we'll help with the editing if needs be.