Marlin Bree

Author scores one-two punch in writing awards

Marlin Bree won two awards in the 15th annual BWI Annual Writing Contest to recognize excelence in boating journalism. Awards were announced at the 2008 Miami Boat show. For his story, The Old Man & The Inland Sea (Ensign magazine), the author won a First Place award. Judging chair Jim Rhodes wrote: "The visual image of the old man frozen to his seat in the skiff, his head bowed, covered with frost, will stick with me a long time. After reading this storyk, I had to sit in front of a roaring fire at least an hour to get the chill out of my bones." The author's Second Place award came in the Boat/Engine Care and Maintenance category for his The Artful Dodger, which ran in Small Craft Advisor magazine.

Magazine Articles

Look for these outstanding Marlin Bree magazine articles:

The Mack Is Back a 5,000 word, five page, full color article on the author's test sail in an 1800's replica Mackinac Boat. Did the old timers know something about boats? "A little Ferrari," says one enthusiast of this 18-footer that was the Lake Superior boat that replaced the birch-bark canoes. See this Marlin Bree feature in the July/August 2008 issue of Small Craft Advisor.

Way of the Tiller a four page, full color extravaganza with color photos of the author in action and two artful drawings in the splendid February 2008 issue of Small Craft Advisor Marlin argues that the best sailing is done with a tiller, not wheel steering. Featured are the author's innovations in fitting out the proper tiller on Persistence.

Sailboat across the top of the world You shouldn't miss the humongous golden Bering Sea waves in Marlin Bree's story in Cruising World (March 2008)as Minnesota sailor Roger Swanson and his intrepid crew push their 57-foot Bowman ketch through ice-filled waters of the Northwest Passage. Cloud Nine's Passage was the first American sailboat to cross the infamous Northwest Passage, despite icebergs, storms, fog and "bergy bits" that could sink the fiberglass boat but never showed up on radar.

Classic Craft gets a face lift Here are gorgeous color photographs and a detailed article of the author's rebuild of Persistence's 25-year-old transom, using the latest in epoxies and gels and such. That's in the March/ April 2008 issue of The Ensign magazine.

Unscheduled, but coming up shortly: Sole Survivor, the tale of a man who lived on an ice-covered raft for days during an ice storm. See that in The Ensign magazine.

Cockpit Comfort This year, the author begins a four-part schedule with DIY Boat Owners Magazine on some (what else?) do-it-yourself projects. First one up was the author's Armchair Comfort for your cockpit, which came about as a result of the author's heart-felt search for more comfort while sitting long hours sailing solo in Persistence. Next up was Marlin's tale of hatch ventilation, which showed how the author built a see-through portlight which combined light and ventilation into Persistence. Future DIY articles will be coming up later later in 2008.


Plus several others, as soon as schedules and contracts are finalized for Cruising World, Small Craft Advisor, Ensign, and DIY Boat Owners magazine.

Published Magazine Articles & Other Stuff

Midnight Crossing A fine personal adventure of the author and a crew in a 35-foot catamaran crossing Superior heading for the Shipwreck Coast in the September/ October 2007 issue of The Ensign.

Author Appearance: Marlin Bree took part in the 11th Annual Wooden Boat Festival and Summer Solstice celebration in June 2008 at the Northhouse in Grand Marais, MN, situated along Superior's westernmost shores. Bree analyzed his tale of The Old Man and the Inland Sea that won a First Place award in the 2008 Boating Writers Inernational Writers Competition.

Warriors of the Storm: The May-June 2007 issue of Ensign, magazine of the U.S. Power Squadron, published Marlin Bree's story the remarkable turn-of-the-century life saving teams on Lake Superior along the Shipwreck Coast.The author had sailed the Shipwreck Coast in a 35-foot catamaran and was struck by the history of the stormy, ship-breaking area. This article was excerpted from Marlin's nonfiction book, "Call of the North Wind."

Lake Superior Titanic The St.Paul Pioneer Press's Don Boxmeyer took on a favorite Marlin Bree theme in his Nov. 10 column, "Tracing A Superior mystery: The final hours of the 'Fitz.' The newspaper columnist told of the author's work to reconstruct the final hours of the doomed 729-foot ship, the Edmund Fitzgerald. He quotes the author's work over the years and cites specific references to Broken Seas and the chapter, "The Edmund Fitzgerald's Last Race." The columnist writes: "He just has to know -- and now, 31 years after it happened, he still thinks he's come the closest of anyone in discerning the last moments of the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald as the ship plunged to the bottom of Lake Superior with her entire company of 29 sailors." He writes: "For Marlin Bree, it's 'that thing that goes bump in the night.'" For a look at Don's column, click on the PDF link at the left.

Small Craft Advisor In the September/ October 2006 issue Marlin Bree analyses the classic problems of record-setting ultra-small boats. See "Small Craft, Big Challenges: Lessons and Statistic Crunches from Successful Minicruisers" on page 17 - 21. Here the author writes about the North Atlantic records of the current and former record setters he knows about, including Gerry Spiess and Hugo Vihlen, and their monumental design problems in getting everything they need in their 5 foot - 4 inch to 10 - foot LOA's from North America to England's often stormy shores. This should be must reading for anyone interested in mini cruisers. NOTE! This article won third place in the 2006 annual Writing Contest, Technical Writing Category, of Boating Writers International. The award brought with it a plaque (see front page) and $200 in cash to the author.

The Old Man and the Inland Sea: A tale of extraordinary courage and resourcefulness on Lake Superior: The Ensign devoted seven glorious pages of its newly redesigned magazine to Marlin Bree's tale of heroism and hope on the world's biggest freshwater lake. The January/February 2007 magazine article was developed from the author's book, Broken Seas. To read this Ensign feature, click on the PDF link at the left,Old Man and the Inland Sea. (This is the artricle that won a First Place BWI Award.

Northern Breezes In the October/November 2006 issue, the author takes a look at the myth and reality of the much maligned two-cycle outboard engine and its performance from Lake Superior to the North Atlantic and the South Pacific. The article on pages 12 -16 is entitled "Keeping Outboards Running, Maybe Forever." If you have an old two cycle outboard -- this will be must reading for you. The author has, by the way, only run two cycles in all his adventures. Quoth one repairman: "If you'd had a four-cycle, you probably wouldn't have made it back." Food for thought. Go to the article (with photos)at www.sailingbreezes.com.

Duckworks Surprise! The author really liked a new book called Cheap Outboards: The Beginner's Guide to Making an Old Motor Run Forever. In this online magazine, he did a complimentary book review in the August online magazine, no doubt because the author is keenly aware that his two-cycle outboards are getting a little gray under the hood, but he plans to keep them running for a while. Cheap Outboards has inspired him.)

Soundings: Derecho storms: the newest weather threat appeared in Sounding's issue of July 2006. Containing color photographs of derecho storms and damage, Marlin Bree's magazine article explains the dangers of the derecho storm and tells how it can affect boaters. "Derechos can surprise. Sneak storms, they arise quickly and typically can't be forecast until they've formed. By that time it's often too late for boaters to seek shelter in the minutes before they hit," the author's Soundings article warns.

Top Award for Best Boating Article

From: Boating Writers International
Contact: Greg Proteau, Executive Director (info@bwi.org.)

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL: -- Marlin Bree, a freelance writer, lecturer and author of several boating books, has won the top award Boating Writer's International gives to a boating writer -- The West Marine Writer's Award.

Bree, of St. Paul, MN., received the award, consisting of a $5,000 check and a lucite tower trophy, from West Marine's Director of Marketing, Randy Bsarberis and BWI President Michael Sciulla, during the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show.

Bree's article, "A Solo Sailor Meets His Storm of the Century," published in June 2003 by The Ensign, tells the story of his encounter with a storm on Lake Superior during the summer of 1999. Weather conditions were benign when Bree set off for a solo holiday cruise aboard his 20-foot home-built sloop. Though he expected an easy run, he prepared the boat for the open waters of the big lake, closing hatches, tying lines and tightening rigging, setting marine radios, and buckling into a safety harness.

His parecautions proved lifesafers as a powerful "green storm" raced from shore with reported 110-mph. winds resulting in one of the biggest blow downs ever recorded. Bree's lucid and stunning report of the battle to save his craft and himself provides a "pot-boiler" story and an account of survival when best-laid plans aren't enough.

Judges for the West Marine Writers Award are associated with Northwestern Unviersity's Medill School of Journalism and have had careers in newspapers, magazines and broadcasting. They include Richard J. Roth, associate dean and associate professor; Greg Stephan, adjunct lecturer at Medill; and Trish Richardson, a former reporter and editor and current senior director of development at the DePaul University College of Law.

The judges decribed the article as "A real page turner. Compelling, engaging writing that is as fast moving as the storm that engulfed this sailor on what started off as a clear, calm day on Lake Superior. The writing is vivid in detail about what the sailor was seeing, feeling and thinking -- all of that providing insights snd lessons for others who could as easily find themselves in the eye of the storm.

Bree's article was in the Seamanship, Rescue & Safety category earlier this year, one of 38 award winners in the 2003 Boating Writers International annual Writing Contest. The top three awards in each of 13 writing categories were automatically entered for this grand prize.

West Marine, Inc., is the nation's largest specialty retailer of boating supplies and apparel, with 365 stores in 38 states. In addition to its retail stores and Port Supply wholesale divisions, the company serves boaters in more than 150 countries worldwide through its mail order and Internet divisions. It maintains a number of resources for boating writers on its Web site, www.westmarine.com.

BWI (www.bwi.org) is a non-profit professional organization consisting of writers, broadcasters, editors, photographers, public relations specialists and others in the communications profession associated with the boating industry. Members include active marine journalist across the U.S., in Canada and around the world, supporting marine manufacturers and service enti5teies, and assocites in commuinication roles.

Items of Note

Persistence Pays -- the magazine article --In the September - October 2005 issue, Small Craft Advisor presented a seven-page feature on the author's Persistence, with the subhead "This hand-built 20-footer proves a little extra effort can carry you a long way." The article tells of some of the author's adventures in his boat on Lake Superior and how he built his small craft and designed some of its special features. Included is a test drive, "Come aboard for a sail on Persistence," which takes a reader on a hands-on voyage of the boat and how the ultra-lightweight sloop handles during a blustery day. Much fun, highly recommed reading -- check out this fine SCA issue now available in Barnes & Noble.
Marlin Bree's adventures in his home-built boat during Superior's "Perfect Storm" are featured in a nonfiction book from International Marine publishing called, Treacherous Waters: Stories of Sailors in the Clutch of the Sea. The anthology features stories of survival from the oceans of the world and the excerpts were garnered from "the best writing about sailing and the sea from the past 40 years." Bree's adventure is the only one selected from the Great Lakes. Editor Tom Lochaas introduces Bree's account of his ordeal as "pure action and struggle, a fight to surive against the elements, which have suddenly become overwhelming." Bree's adventure was excerpted from his book, Wake of the Green Storm, (Marlor Press, 2001
Stands right up there with the best, writes library book review KLIATT: "This assembly of true seafaring adventures stands right up there with the best. For one thing, author Marlin Bree does not simply tell a good tale: he recapitulates it. In each of the six cases, he begins by setting up the situation with a prologue, then presents a narrative of the vessel's final voyage, and finishes with a section with his own conjectures in which he describes his visits with the survivors. When there are none, and the boat did not survive, he speculates intelligently about what really must have happened 'out there.'" (for more on this fine review, check out this web site's Broken Seas section)

Summer Reading Pick Lake Superior magazine (July 2005)selected Broken Seas as one of three "Books for the Beach" and recommended it as one of "three things worth bringing to a Lake Superior beach this summer." Editor Konnie LeMay describes the book as a "collection of gripping tales about the perils on the inland sea." She concludes: "As a sailor and journalist, Marlin Bree writes with authority and detail."

Down to the sea in a good book. That's the headline for the Kim Ode column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in which the columnist reviews Marlin Bree's new book, Broken Seas. Kim liked the sailing stories about Gerry Spiess and his voyage across the Pacific in his 10-foot sloop, Yankee Girl, and said the chapter of Mike Plant was "heart rending." Mike disappeared on the North Atlantic in his 60-foot sloop, Coyote. But the most "compelling story" to the columnist was about Helmer Aakvik's attempt to rescue a fellow fisherman off Superior's North Shore in the face of a November storm. Kim wrote: "It's a story about ice. Ice from the breaking waves encased his engine, and, ultimately encased Aakvik."

Wild on Superior The April 2005 issue of Cruising World contained seven color pages on the author's lone voyage aboard Persistence into the Northern Arc of Lake Superior. Included was a cruising guide to the Canadian north shore of Lake Superior plus some of the author's curmudgeonly do's and don't's. "Mesmerizing account," said one CW reader.

For business leaders: The Forbes Book Club has made Broken Seas a selection for its book club for business leaders.

*Marlin Bree is in the latest edition of Who's Who in America. He is also profiled in Who's Who in the Midwest. His profile is also in the International Who's Who of Authors and Writers, 2004. He is also included in the 2005 Who's Who in the World. For more info, click on the author's BIO.

Two chapters from Wake of the Green Storm, Chapter 1: Dream of the Islands, and Chapter 2: Getting Ready, are posted free to viewers on Amazon.com. and also on Amazon.ca (Canada's Amazon). Go to Books. Type in Wake of the Green Storm. Click on the posted chapters to open them. A segment of the prologue to the book also is posted on Amazon.uk. Wake of the Green Storm was on Amazon.com's regional best-seller list for more than a year.

*Several selections from Broken Seas as well as Wake of the Green Storm are shown in these web pages. Just click on the book title above.

Who would have thought? The author's boat, Persistence (see Das Boot section), was selected to be a Great Boat in Cruising World's December issue (2003). With the headline "Persuaded by a Little Persistence," the magazine published four color photographs of the little boat and an article by the author on how he built his boat, its sailing characteristics, and, some of its adventures in storms on Superior. The boat was selected by CW's editor, Herb McCormick (who is also boating editor for the New York Times). Persistence, incidentally is the first Lake Superior boat selected as a Cuising World Great Boat. It is also one of the few trailerables and one of the smallest in the interesting CW feature.