Marlin Bree

Author's Persistence:
Little boat,
big heart

Persistence is the 20-foot centerboard sloop author Marlin Bree built beside his home in Shoreview, MN, and sailed extensively on Lake Superior.

She is an ultra-lightweight vessel constructed with a hull of three layers of 1/8-inch thick Western Red Cedar veneers set in epoxy. The outer hull is sheathed in six-ounce fiberglass, set in epoxy, with additional fiberglass below the waterline. The bottom is finished with layers of epoxy/carbon.

The keelson, stem, and keel are white oak, with Sitka Spruce stringers. Ribs are mahogany composite. The cabin top is Canadian birch plywood, with Honduras Mahogany veneers set on top, and Sitka Spruce veneers on the bottom. The foredeck area is ply faced with teak veneers, set in epoxy, as is the cockpit well.

The boat is bright finished -- all varnished.

People ask how long it takes to build a little trailerable cruiser like Persistence, and the author tells them: "seven years, and, she isn't finished yet." Each year for more than 20 years, the author has worked on his beloved wooden boat, rebuilding, adding revarnishing and innovating.

The little boat has tiny accommodations. "Imagine taking all your sail bags, your food and water, all your clothing and heavy weather gear, plus your books and maps, sleeping bags, blankets and pillows and stuffing them under your dining room table -- and living there for three months."

A solo voyage resulted in the author's first Lake Superior book, Wake of the Green Storm. "It was by accident," Bree related. "After I spent 7 years building my boat, I figured I'd just spend a little time off doing some cruising." However, the author found that as soon as he tied up on an island, Madeline Island in the Apostle Islands group in the southern shore of Lake Superior, he came to have a new insight on Superior.

"As the magazine editor for the Minneapolis Tribune," he said, " I had looked for stories about island life and, in particular, adventures on the world's largest freshwater lake. But these stories eluded me until I spent time on the island, living aboard my boat."

"A whole new world of Superior opened up for me. I began writing stories down, and, taking some pictures." The result was the first of three Lake Superior books in which the author both sails the Big Lake from port to port (and storm to storm) and meets some waterfront characters.

"And shipwrecks," Bree said. "The lake is loaded with shipwrecks, and, these make fascinating stories. As I sail over a shipwreck, I look below my hull into the deep waters, and, try to imagine what it was like during the final moments."

An acclaimed boating historian, Bree does extensive research into the shipwrecks and adventrues after he returns from his cruises.

The tough little boat --- a centerboarder that Bree trailers up to the lake --- has been through some terrible storms, but the worst one was Superior's version of the Perfect Storm. This was a derecho that swept through July 4, 1999, with reported winds and downdrafts that topped 110 mph.

"I was not certain that I was going to survive that one," the author relates. This killer storm was reported in Wake of the Green Storm. Bree also interviewed other boaters who were out in the storm, and, recorded some of their exciting experiences.

Bree sails the little centerboarder each sailing season in Minnesota and in the winter, stores the boat on its trailer in one of the enclosed buildings in the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

Though it is more than 20 years old, including building time, the boat is solid and strong, Bree says. "Every year I go over my boat, from keelson to topmast, and check everything. She's still got a heart of oak."

About the author:
Boater, boat-builder
and best-selling author

Marlin Bree is a best-selling boating book writer and veteran boater.

His nonfiction book, Wake of the Green Storm: A survivor's tale, tells of the author's experiences in his 20-foot homemade sailboat during a 120-mph. killer windstorm. The book became a best-seller on Amazon.com and was the internet bookseller's regional best-selling books for more than a year.

Bree's previous boating books on sailing Lake Superior include: In the Teeth of the Northeaster and Call of the North Wind.

Bree is the professional writer behind the national best-seller, Alone Against the Atlantic, which he wrote with sailor Gerry Spiess after the sailer in 1979 crossed the North Atlantic Ocean in a 10-foot sailboat -- a world record. Alone Against the Atlantic was a selection of the Book of the Month Club and Reader's Digest Condensed Books. The hard cover book also was published in a mass market edition and translated into several languages around the world.

Bree was the Information Officer for the Pacific Voyage of Yankee Girl, which resulted in a world record for the crossing of the Pacific Ocean in the smallest boat.

Bree's Boat Log & Record (third edition) is a nautical best-seller at Barnes & Noble. He began his Boat Log & Record in 1989 after seeing the need for a comprehensive log book for an average boater to keep track of a small boat and its voyages -- instead of a navigator's ocean-crossing log for large vessel.

Bree edited and published the book, The Stormy Voyage of Father's Day, the nonfiction account of Hugo Vihlen's record breaking crossing of the North Atlantic in a 5 foot, 4-inch sailboat. Vihlen's record broke that set by Yankee Girl as the smallest boat to cross the North Atlantic.

He has his own Marlin Bree imprint at Marlor Press. This imprint includes, Heavy Weather Boating Emergencies, by Chuck Luttrell with Jean Luttrell. The book is subtitled, "The survival guide for freshwater powerboat operators."

As a sailing journalist, Bree has written articles for Cruising World, Ensign, Sailing, Small Craft Advisor and Northern Breezes sailing magazines. He was inducted in 2002 as an honorary member of the Saint Paul Sail and Power Squadron.

Bree is a former newsman, serving in a variety of journalistic posts from the editor's reporter for the Stars and Stripes newspaper (European edition) to that of the magazine editor of the Star-Tribune, Minneapolis.

He is a past president of the Minnesota Press Club and he served as the first president of the Midwest Independent Publishers Association. He was the chair of the 1992 Minnesota Book Awards.

He is the recipient of more than 50 writing and editing awards. In 2004, at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, he received the top award Boating Writers International gives to a boating writer -- The West Marine Writer's Award. He is the first Great Lakes author to receive the highest honor that BWI can bestow upon a writer. He also won a Certificate of Merit in 2005 for his five-part magazine series, The Passion of Mike Plant.

He is profiled in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the Midwest and The International Authors and Writer's Who's Who.

He has been interviewed widely by the media throughout the Midwest. As a platform speaker, he is a member of the Boats U.S. Speaker's Bureau as well as the Boating Writers International Speaker's Bureau. He has appeared at Strictly Sail, Chicago, and many times at the Minneapolis Boat Show. Bree also has spoken at various sailing groups, including the Southwestern Yacht Club, San Diego, and the Saint Paul Sail and Yacht Club.

He built his own high-tech wooden sailboat, Persistence, beside his home. Construction time took seven years, and, Bree says, "it's not finished yet." An inveterate boat tinkerer and innovator, Bree says, "Old boats are like spouses and good friends. They don't get older -- only better."

Bree is a member of the Author's Guild and Boating Writers International. He has served as a judge for the annual writing contest of BWI in the technical writing division and as a design judge for the 2005 contest of Small Craft Advisor.

He lives with his wife, Loris, son, Will, and Ocicat, Tico, in their home in Shoreview, Minnesota.