Filmmaker
Steve Stone runs Off Center Harbor's business and marketing, and he has filmed and directed most of the site's 500-plus videos.
Steve studied business in undergrad, and then fine art (documentary filmmaking and animation) in grad school. Long before taking up filmmaking and business though, when Steve was 9, his dad came home from the office one day with a Laser sailboat in tow. It was a totally random act by his dad — the boat was rented for the weekend to see if the family might have interest in sailing.
The first outing in 30 knots ended with blood gushing from dad's nose as he hung onto the sheet for dear life as the Laser sailed away with Steve's sister aboard after dad was bashed overboard by the boom. Somehow, the Laser would stick with the family go on to imprint a deep need within Steve to be on the water, under sail, playing with the edge of the wind
Nearly twenty years later, on a serendipitous outing in the South Pacific aboard a leeboard ketch designed by L. Francis Herreshoff, Steve read one of Maynard Bray's books and got hooked on the beauty of well-designed traditional boats. Steve credits Wayne Roberts, a boatbuilder in New Zealand, for deepening that appreciation for beauty into a reverence for simple boats and a simpler life.
And after nearly another 20 years passed, Steve moved to Brooklin, Maine. As Maynard was snapping still photos of Steve steam-bending frames into a Herreshoff S-boat, Steve said: "Hey Maynard, does that camera shoot video?"... and OffCenterHarbor.com was born. You just never know where life will turn.
Here's Steve at work filming aboard the legendary Malabar II (PHOTO: Benjamin Mendlowitz):

And on a camp cruise in Maine in HOWDY, a Caledonia Yawl:

And here's a sampling of Steve's work on Off Center Harbor . . .
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Slow August – Ghosting Along: With the ever-present sound of the sea being halted by granite outside this protected anchorage, we go drifting along am... |
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Jack Stone’s Senior Project: My son Jack chose to build a boat for his senior project in high school, and here's a video we made for his presentation... |
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Slow August – Island Time: The tent is set up, dinner is cooking, and you have the island all to yourselves. Nothing to do except smell the salt ai... |
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Just Be, In a Boat: On a remote lake, deep in the famed North Woods of Thoreau country, a family discovers a space and time that's all too r... |
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 | New Off Center Skiff for Sale: This brand new Off Center Skiff is being launched today, and then auctioned off in a sealed-bid silent auction. She look... |
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 | The Secret to Happiness, Part 2: At Off Center Harbor, we like encourage the ideas of slowing down, getting out into nature in simple boats, and making t... |
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 | Do You Have OCHD?: Hi. My name is Steve, and I’m an addict... After 41 years of explaining away my behavior as a “love of sailing,” I... |
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 | Barefoot August: As you may know, our boating philosophy at OffCenterHarbor.com can be summarized in one word -- simplicity. L. Francis H... |
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 | The Soul Behind Our Videos: If you've had a warm feeling when you've watched some of our videos -- maybe even a feeling that we've hidden a bit of s... |
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The Maori Meaning of “AROHA”: We love name of this design. The moment we heard the Maori meaning behind the word Aroha, we knew this was going to be t... |
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 | W.A.G. Bags to the Rescue: Is he really going there? Ya, sorry — but it's a reality/question we ran into all summer, and we've been thinking that... |
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 | A Second Life: It's not often that any of us get to have a second life, doing something we love that is totally different than our life... |
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 | We Belong to It: "The secret is not to pitch yourself against nature, but to bend your flow to hers." Ray Mears... |
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 | Guided: "Somewhere deep inside of me there is a drive to share something so magnificent." Ray Reitze, Maine Wilderness Gui... |
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 | I Just Realized That I’m a Wimp: Just can't help but post these videos even though they don't have a single boat in them. After watching the movie Free S... |
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 | Double Rainbow All the Way: Still brings any room of people to laughter, still beautiful, and now legendary all over the world . . .... |
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 | Camel Finds Water: Probably too old for this myself, but I hope my kids do it someday:... |
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 | Creatures of the Sea: Turn the volume up, click full screen, and get lost for a moment in a dream of fishing and creatures of the sea... The s... |
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 | My Boy in a Boat: It seems like yesterday that my son Jack was learning how to row, circling the boats in Center Harbor, and heading off f... |
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 | Denali’s Raven: Check out the primal beauty and strength in the land, people and life choices...... |
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 | YUKON in Tasmania: It was a stunning afternoon yesterday in Tasmania — at the end of a beautiful sail on the old working ketch KERRAWYN w... |
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 | Anchor Point: What a remarkable story of forgiveness and grace. Thanks to J.T. Van Zandt, a fly-fishing guide in central Texas, for op... |
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 | Lego Car & Jet Bicycle?: This young man reminds me of an uber-talented classmate in film school at CalArts, Teddy Newton. Fast forward 20 years,... |
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 | OCH’s Trail Angel: Chances are, when you contact us at OCH, you'll reach Emma. She joined us in October after hiking 2,189.2 miles from Geo... |
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 | Nature Rx: I saw this at the Banff Mountain Film Festival and was so bummed that I didn't think of shooting it for OCH... Di... |
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The Important Places: Here's a new short film that's going to win a lot of awards. As I plot and plan all year to get my own kids out of achie... |
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Tall Ship Sailing in Tasmania: The anticipation is building for OffCenterHarbor's first journey to the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasma... |
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Rescuing New Zealand’s Orcas: Few animals represent the power of our oceans as well as the Orca - the most intelligent predator on earth. For those of... |
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