The Long View: Lessons Learned

A few weeks ago three Alaskans visited the Island Institute to pick our brains about how the Island Institute operates. One, Denby Lloyd, is Alaska’s Director of Commercial Fisheries who, among other duties, oversees the state’s salmon hatcheries program, critical to the economies of hundreds of fishing communities. The other two visitors, Duncan Fields and

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“It’s a good example” Private transaction preserves Chebeague’s only boatyard

Preserving working waterfront is one of the biggest challenges coastal communities face. Recent success stories usually involve community members working with a wide variety of groups, from nonprofit organizations to land trusts, to keep wharves and boatyards from becoming luxury summer homes. So the recent transfer of the Chebeague Island Boatyard is unusual. It was

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APHRODITE revs up again

The Brooklin Boat on Blue Hill Bay has rebuilt the APHRODITE, a 74-foot speedboat originally constructed in 1937 for financier Jock Whitney, whose family philanthropy extends to Maine’s art treasures. He used this sleek, torpedo-stern launch to commute from his Manhasset home to his Wall Street office, a 45-minute cruise. He would settle back to

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Reverse Sheer

From his home at the head of Somes Sound, E. Farnham Butler can see his life’s work, the Mount Desert Yacht Yard, and out to the sea that still calls to him.   At 96, he is still sharp and willing to discuss the boatbuilding that sustained him for a lifetime. From his living room he

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