Less (LOA) is More
he breeze kicks up. The boat digs in, and I tighten my grip on the mainsheet. It’s overcast but warm. The slate-blue water around me is patterned with whitecaps. Ahead, the low, tumbling hills of Old Mission Peninsula, a 17-mile long finger of land separating the east and west arms of Grand Traverse Bay, spreads out along the horizon. I have sailed in this corner of northern Michigan, where my grandparents built a house for themselves many years ago, since I was an 8-year-old boy. The peninsula has always helped me keep my bearings. As I steer toward a
