June, 2001 By Dodge Morgan The lunatic fringe, and we’re talking about people here, can be found along the full range of human endeavor and in all age categories. There are wacky athletes, intellectuals, life-stylers, adventurers, sailors, activists, comics, plumbers and editors and the wackier they are the more endearingRead More

May, 2001 By Dodge Morgan A boat owner’s relationship with the boat yard is extremely complex and delicate, a duel of two very different perspectives towards the only reason for the relationship in the first place: The boat. It may appear on the surface that the key variable is money,Read More

April, 2001 By Dodge Morgan I received a personal letter from Bob Rice, who is arguably the top special-events weather forecaster alive. Rice did the strategic weather planning for my solo, non-stop circumnavigation with American Promise and advised me on weather tactics while under way. He specializes in voyages andRead More

Midwinter, 2001 By Dodge Morgan It is much easier to mix reality and fantasy when one is at sea alone. And it is only when the two are combined in a kind of mental-state emulsion that the truth can be experienced. Reality is trapped by logic, driven by institutional conventionRead More

By Dodge Morgan We had several wandering tribes in Maine this August. One could think that we are returning in spirit to our pre-Columbian, Indian roots with fully self-sufficient clans migrating between halos of action, some on land and some on sea. Tribal names now are acronyms rather than nativeRead More

By Dodge Morgan OpSail Maine 2000 weekend transformed Portland Harbor and western Casco Bay into a confusion of scenes spanning a century of time and a myriad of seagoing pursuits. The full-rigged ships and schooners of the Tall Ships parade harked to the 19th Century. A spectator fleet of upwardRead More

By Dodge Morgan Sailing into Bermuda, on June 7 at 5 in the morning was a very busy event. Wings of time and I folded into a traffic jam of two big square-riggers, an immense cruise ship, a United States Navy submarine and two more sailing yachts not far behindRead More

By Dodge Morgan Murray G. Peterson of South Bristol, Maine, was my introduction to the golden age of yacht designers. It was essentially through him that I met, or at least found myself in the presence of, Aage Nielsen, Fenwick Williams, John Alden, Olin Stephens, Ray Hunt, Bill Hand, WilliamRead More

June 1, 2000 By Dodge Morgan How many of us can reach hack into sailing memories to the year 1963? Probably not if you haven’t been sucking on free air for 50 years or more. We codgers will have our own personal snapshots of what most assuredly was the goldenRead More

By Dodge Morgan In Maine the boatyards are thawed and disheveled forms swinging buckets and paint cans are beginning to appear. The floats are not yet in, but the padlocks on the sheds are open. Mostly the activity is chat. This early, it is difficult to tell the difference betweenRead More