August 2021 By Tim Plouff Multiple-generation Mainers can often trace their roots to lumbering or the sea. As the islands off the rugged coast were often the first places that original residents established a toe-hold in the new continent, islanders became the mothers-of-invention by necessity. These hearty souls also becameRead More

Most girls want a pony for Christmas. I wanted a boat.

July 2021 By Thomas Dudley This posthumously published essay is the second in a series of lively, often wry, reminiscences to be published in Points East over the coming months. Thomas Minot Dudley, of Durham, N.H., died at the age of 83 the day after Christmas 2013. Tom’s wife DudleyRead More

Photo courtesy Roger Long June 2021 By Roger Long Senior year in high school was when I put away childish things and became fully obsessed with boats. I’d made a weeklong cruise in my 10’ dinghy with a boom tent the summer before on Lake George, and was teaching myselfRead More

“How to move. When to move. If you had to think about it, you weren’t going on the boat.” The boat was Galatea – a 38-foot steel-hulled yawl that was sailed across the Atlantic in the summer of 1964 – and the remembrance is courtesy of Charlie Olcott, one ofRead More

May 2021 By Dave Paling Growing up in a coastal town, I was exposed early to boats and experiences on the ocean. I grew to love time spent on the water thanks to my father, a navy veteran whose DNA drove him to pursue fishing whenever free time allowed. ARead More

May, 2021 By Randy Randall For Points East The boys hate pumpouts. They say it’s a disgusting, smelly job, and only good for tips. They groan when someone calls in on the radio asking for one. But it’s a service we have to provide. Based on the size of ourRead More

March/April 2021 By Peter Winter Warning: Violent and gratuitous allegory ahead New Zealand sent several artillery batteries to help out during the Vietnam War. Some culturally insensitive brute at the Pentagon decided that since New Zealand looked pretty close to Australia on a map, they must be friendly neighbors. SoRead More

March/April 2021 By Pam Humbert We were smitten when she first came into sight from the launch. It was a Pearson 30, the make of boat that had reached the very top of our short list after three years of pouring over advertisements, research and inspections. We thought to ourselves,Read More

March/April 2021 By Paul Brown In the late 1980s I was relatively new to sailing, and had recently purchased a 1968 Thunderbird 26 I named Brownscow. Brownscow’s design was the result of a contest offered by a West Coast plywood company in 1958, and – as per the requirements ofRead More