About
Off Center Harbor’s fast-growing collection of videos features mariners and craftspeople at the very top of the boating field, showing exactly how they do things, and which products they use in their work. We also bring members aboard many of the finest dream boats (usually wooden) in the world for an immersive, close-up experience.
The site is 100 percent membership driven, and we do not accept advertising. Not lining our pockets with advertising dollars enables us to provide OCH members with the unvarnished truth, straight from legendary masters of their craft (without worrying whether we’ll piss off an advertiser).
The topics of the videos range from boatbuilding, to trimming sails, to a complete course on understanding every aspect of your marine diesel engine. It’s quite a variety of over 500 videos (and over 500 articles as well). There’s even a 42-part series on how to build a Caledonia Yawl camp cruiser.
Members say that their experience on the site is a rewarding blend of instruction and inspiration.
As we proceed down this path, we aim to inspire the use of well-designed boats to connect with friends, family and the natural world. If, in the process, we can help parents and grandparents introduce their kids and grandkids to the freedom and self-reliance available on the water in a well-designed boat, Off Center Harbor will have been a success in our eyes.
OFF CENTER HARBOR’S FOUNDERS
Maynard Bray
Maritime Historian
Few people in the world have devoted as much time and energy, or have become more knowledgeable about classic boats, than Maynard Bray. After a dozen years of marine engineering at Electric Boat and Bath Iron Works… Read More
Benjamin Mendlowitz
Marine Photographer
Benjamin Mendlowitz is one of America’s preeminent marine photographers. He is known throughout the world for his enduring Calendar of Wooden Boats, having now surpassed its 40th year in publication, and for his work in various nautical publications… Read More
Eric Blake
Boatbuilder / Designer / Instructor
Eric Blake was born into a long line of dairy farmers and wood cutters in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. He started building canoes in his father’s shop when old enough to run a table saw. After graduating from… Read More
Bill Mayher
Maritime Writer
Bill Mayher started sailing wooden boats when wood was pretty much all there was. He has kept his faith in traditional watercraft through changing times, first working in yards and then owning and maintaining a long succession… Read More
Steve Stone
Filmmaker & Business Guy
Steve Stone studied business and marketing in undergrad, and then documentary filmmaking and animation at California Institute of the Arts. Long before taking up filmmaking though, when Steve was ten, his dad came home from the office one day with a… Read More