Midwinter 2017 By Christopher Birch The best advice I ever gave my children was to drink their coffee black and their whiskey neat. I rest easy knowing how much time I have saved them from rustling around looking for things like cream and sugar and ice. If other parents hadRead More

Guest perspective/Randy Randall The marina business in winter is not much fun. The river’s frozen over, the snow-covered docks look like giant loaves of white bread, and the mooring balls are gripped fast in the ice. It’s all very depressing, and spring seems a long way off. Snow piled upRead More

  If you can correctly identify this harbor, you’ll be on your way to winning a fine Points East designer cap. To qualify, identify the harbor AND tell us something about the harbor, such as how you recognized it and some reasons you like to hang out there. We’ll pickRead More

In the midst of this year’s Points East holiday gathering I wondered, as I have done yearly at this event, why does this magazine “taste” so good? Why the devoted readership? Why the nearly 100 percent staff attendance at this party, year after year, many driving from afar? Why theRead More

Playing the weather cards in the Gulf of Maine can be an uncertain business, for the forecasts and local meteorological realities, particularly wind speed and direction, are at odds as often as they’re on the mark. Summer 2016 was a blustery one, the forecasts regularly calling for winds gusting 20Read More

Essex, U.K. “The World’s Greatest Yachting Cartoonist” died Jan. 25. A modest, shy man, he eschewed the spotlight and seemed unaware of the esteem in which sailors all around the world held him. Born into a mining family in County Durham (England) in 1921, he lied about his age toRead More

Pleasant Point, Maine David passed away Jan. 20. As a young man, he traveled widely, eventually settling in San Francisco, where he lived for many years. After returning to Maine, he attended The Boat School in Eastport, and later went to work at Benjamin River Marine and Brooklin Boat Yard,Read More

Barrington and Newport, R.I. Mike passed away peacefully on Dec. 1, 2016. He was industrious from an early age, starting work in the boat business, rebuilding outboard motors at the age of 13. He continued his love for boating after college with a position at Pearson Yachts. He then spentRead More

A bucket list adventure to the Pacific Northwest ends successfully for our columnist, but now withhout a bit of disaster.

Here’s a gripping tale that that is unfortunately very true. It’s a story that mixes high drama, tragedy, rotten luck, stupidity, cowardice, litigiosity, incompetence (on a grand scale), hubris, greed, carelessness, and grief with courage, luck, and a ton more grief.