When Cap'n Rick won the most recent Crosshare midi crossword contest and chose "The Sea" as the theme for the new contest I thought I should submit an entry both in homage to him as a meta constructor and also to see if I could cram a meta into an 11x11 grid. The answer to the meta is a type of boat. Answer & explanation:
https://xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=157576#p157576
Nudges, in order of increasing blatancy:
- There is a hint in the grid: 20A. Prefix for boats powered by steam, unlike the meta answer which, like some entries in this grid, takes a more "nautical" prefix
- Did you notice that in this grid one letter is conspicuous by its absence, given the puzzle title?
- There are no Cs in the grid. 5 symmetrical entries can take a C as a prefix.
- It's time to play the "alternate entries" game!