From the Deck: DISCOVERY 1607

I stepped into the shop of The Boothbay Harbor Shipyard to see how their replica of DISCOVERY was coming on. I walked around her at floor level. She looked massive with double-sawn frames of angelique and two-inch planking of wana. She is partly planked from the deck down and from the garboards up. I could

Continue reading...


Gary Comer – A Rememberance

Gary Comer, who died Oct. 4, 2006 after a long battle with cancer, will be remembered mostly for his phenomenal entrepreneurial success in founding and building Lands’ End into a worldwide brand. But from his boyhood days in Chicago, Comer harbored a passion for the sea and for remote places, especially islands and the frozen

Continue reading...


Institute Opens Portland Office

Institute vice president Peter Ralston (left) and community services director Chris Wolff (right) celebrate the opening of the Island Institute’s new Portland office at 305 Commercial Street. With them is Barbara Hoppin of Peaks Island, who attended the opening party on Sept. 28 along with an enthusiastic crowd of Institute members and staff, Casco Bay

Continue reading...


Hard Process Ask two lawyers about Maine’s secession law, and you’ll get two different views

The parties involved in the Peaks Island secession process disagree on several major issues, raising questions about the effectiveness of the state’s secession law. But it’s a seldom-used law that is subject to differing interpretations. Two lawyers who are not involved in this dispute, who have worked on past secession efforts, reached differing conclusions about

Continue reading...


“Gray Zone” questions persist

The Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association (GMFA) has produced a new fishery management plan for the “Gray Zone,” the disputed triangular area between Grand Manan and the Maine coast. “We’d really like it to be a joint management plan with Maine fishermen,” says GMFA project manager Melanie Sonnenberg. But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

Continue reading...


Through Many Neighborhoods

To the editor: In response to “Risks of LNG” by Robert Godfrey [letters, WWF Sept. 06]… This pipeline is over 30″ (think hula-hoop size) and is an export line with 1440-psi pressure. Robert Godfrey wrote it is being built “east of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.” [This pipeline will pass through] many neighborhoods, many schools,

Continue reading...