As a kid, Bob Muggleston took sailing lessons at Pettipaug Sailing Academy, on the Connecticut River, and that was it — he was done for. All the racing and cruising he’s done since, and the years of tooling around in a 16-foot Larsen runabout, are because of those lessons. His obsession with boats, in general, and his inability to turn one down that’s free? That might be fodder for a therapy session. However, he takes comfort in knowing he’s not alone.Without a doubt, there are many distractions to help bridge the gap between boating seasons these days, a lot of them thanks to technology. I’m thinking specifically of online classifieds (a personal favorite; see the trouble it got me into), YouTube and Vimeo, sailing vlogs, and streamable documentaries – allRead More
I hate to admit this, especially since my wife has been saying it for years, but I think I’ve got a problem. The problem is that I have too many boats. While this may be true, I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone. Many of us suffer from thisRead More
For the last three summers, since buying my latest “big” boat, I’ve had the same three goals: 1) Hunt down Points East columnist David Buckman while he’s cruising in Maine. Me aboard my Good Buddy and David aboard his Leight, we’d go find a few of those eel ruts he’sRead More
If you’re a sailor, chances are you’ve thought about what it would be like to circumnavigate. The idea of a continuous voyage that lasts years, and involves exotic destinations – it’s heady stuff for the coaster, and there’s no shortage of literature on the topic, which makes for especially greatRead More
In the early 2000s I was lucky enough to race to Bermuda not once, but twice, with Jim Mertz, the “Iron Man of the Onion Patch,” who participated in 30 Newport Bermuda Races between 1936 and 2004 – a record that probably won’t be topped anytime soon. Jim is goneRead More
The first personal account of a trip on the Maine Island Trail I ever read was Steve Callahan’s 2002 article “Reflections at the Water’s Edge,” which documented a trip he and his wife Kathy did on a section of the trail in the pages of “Cruising World” magazine. Callahan andRead More
For cadets between their second and third years at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, June is a special month. Classes are over, the grass on their hillside campus overlooking the Thames River is green again, and afternoon southwesterlies – warm, and full of promise – haveRead More
If an award existed for the greatest distance traveled to exhibit at this year’s Maine Boat Builders Show in Portland, Maine (March 23-25), it would have gone to Iceland’s Björn Jónsson, who travelled over 2,300 miles. Remarkably, this was only 400 miles farther than an exhibitor from Houston, Texas, traveled.Read More
I hope you’ll indulge me. In the last issue of this magazine, long-time editor Nim Marsh announced that, effective immediately, he was stepping down. He did so halfway through one of his finest editorials, and no doubt some of you choked on your coffee and re-read the sentence several timesRead More
