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Having vacationed only on conventional cruise ships, James Wamsley last summer ventured aboard a 19th-century-style schooner (left) for a week’s cruise along the coast of Maine. To his surprise, he liked it—in spite of cramped cabins, inconvenient heads, and total lack of deckside pools, dance revues, and other delights of the Love Boat variety.

In the January/February 2000 issue of TRAVELER, Wamsley tells instead of wooden hulls, canvas sails, the time-warp feel of historic vessels, a lobster bake on an island beach, and a passenger roster in the lower double digits. All at a price well below that charged by “the cruise ship Gargantua.”

Yet a new gargantuan seems to launch every month. Cunard just announced plans for a 2,500-passenger vessel, a fifth of a mile (0.3 kilometer) long. Yet cruising by sail remains a tiny niche market. Cruise Industry News lists only 15 sailing vessels out of 231 ships—and doesn’t even bother with vessels carrying fewer than 100 passengers. Unless you charter your own boat, your choices for a week-long sailing cruise are very limited. Maine windjammer berths can fill up as long as a year ahead of time.

This month the Tourism Forum asks: Would you prefer to see more sailing ships or more megaships? Why?

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Photographs by Bob Krist (sailboat) and James P. Blair (cruise ship)