Letters to the Editor — Issue 177

Big deer or a moose?

It might even have been Ron Joseph on the boat with us (author of “Tales of a Maine Biologist” in the May/June issue). We had taken summer visitors on a commercial whale-watching cruise out of Boothbay Harbor a few years ago, but the seas were kicking up and the captain deemed it was too rough, so we turned back. As we were motoring in, the biologist on board, looking to entertain us in the absence of leviathans, starting recounting the odd questions he’d been asked on other cruises. The best one, I thought, came from a woman who sincerely wished to know just how big a deer had to become in order to be considered a moose. 

Silvio Calabi

Camden, ME

R. Buckminster Fuller fan

I love the image of Bucky in his rowing needles in the May/June issue. I worked for him in the 1970s, and when I first came to North Haven, Maine, in August 1991, Jamie Carpenter took me back to Bear Island on his Whaler. I snuck into the boathouse and found the rowing shell. It’s probably still there. In a youthful impulse I took the string shoelace off one of the stretcher shoes and wore it around my neck for years. I think I lost it years later swimming off Deacon Brown’s Point in North Haven. I was quite attached to it.

Guy Nordenson

Via email

The stories old charts tell

I enjoyed Laurie Schreiber’s article “Saying Farewell to Paper Charts” in Boats of the Year 2022.

I can attest that many sailors are reluctant to say farewell to their paper charts. I am the custodian of a couple hundred Mediterranean charts that belonged to members of an ocean sailing club. The sailors or their families couldn’t bear to throw them away—so they passed them on to me. The charts have penciled-in courses, bearings, sketches, notes from tantalizing voyages. Some have the boat’s name stamped on them, Penobscot being one of them. I look at them before every cruise in the Med—the 19th century charts for amazing land detail, the small scale charts for the big picture and for pacing off the passages. When I get on my boat, I turn on the GPS/AIS and let that guide us. But I don’t forget the paper charts.

Spencer Smith

Seapoint Books + Media

Brooklin, ME

Bi-coastal boating

Joe Upton’s journey “The Hunt for a Bigger, Better Boat” was entertaining and instructive. However I had to wonder why his hunt was in New England rather than in his home state of Washington. I now live in Maine but had a home on Pender Island in the Gulf islands of British Columbia, just north of Washington’s San Juan Islands. Many times while hiking and sailing those waters I encountered visitors from New England who commented on the many similarities between the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands to the Maine coast.

Perhaps he is lucky enough to have a boat on each coast or perhaps, like me, it was those grandchildren he mentioned that brought his boating adventures to Maine’s magnificent coast.

Michael Hudson

Brunswick, ME

We heard from a number of readers about the news that Publisher John Hanson and his wife, Editor Polly Saltonstall, had sold the magazine to Ted Ruegg. They made us blush. Thank you!    —The Editors

Passing the torch

On behalf of the Penobscot Marine Museum, I would like to congratulate you on the passing of the torch of MBH&H. You have established such well-regarded, compelling, and vital publications, and it is wonderful to see your legacy continue. We are thankful for all the ways our organizations have connected over the years and how the magazine has promoted our work. I hope this transition will allow you more time to mess about in boats, and I look forward to this summer’s 35th anniversary celebration of the founding of MBH&H.

Karen Smith

Penobscot Marine Museum

See you on the water

Congratulations to Editor Polly Saltonstall and Publisher John Hanson for the transition to a slower pace of life. You have both worked so hard over the years and your efforts to promote boating and the industry have been such a valuable experience for us all. We wish you all the very best and hope to see you on the water!

Margaret Beaulieu

Classic Boat Shop

Don’t change a thing

I certainly hope the new ownership will not make any change on the content of the magazine. It is such a great read and designed for the “regular” person, unlike many of the magazines that have shifted to high-end boats that only a select few could ever purchase.

Also, the articles on the Maine way of life are a Main(e) reason for subscribing.

Edward W. Gasser

Avon, CT

A beautiful magazine

Hoping for the best. Polly and John have done an incredible job creating a beautiful magazine. I am incredibly grateful, and am sure many others are as well.

R. Gregg Stone, Via email

Be proud

I just read about the sale of the magazine—congratulations!  I hope you guys are proud of what you have accomplished, and I hope the new owner will bring as much passion and dedication to the Maine boatbuilding and boating scene as you both have. I read that you will both still be involved in the publication of the magazine, but I trust you will be transitioning to having more free time for ice boating, rowing, sailing, and other pursuits that have taken a back seat over the last 30 years.

David Gelinas

Camden, ME

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