[$3] MAIB is a bi-monthly 40-page magazine about boats and the people who love them. That's it. It's not about money or fashion or glossy eye-candy. Editor Bob Hicks has been kickin' out the jams for 20+ years. He publishes the best boat lore stories, boatbuilding info articles, book reviews, event news, trip reports, cranky rants of any boat magazine, bar none. It's all fresh and candid. He says no to advertisers all the time. He has enough ads, thanks. He doesn't want color. He wants to keep his freedom. For the sake of his readers.

I tell ya, the kind of integrity in a mag like this makes it appealing even if you're not a boater. Because it's not really about boats. It's about the interesting things of life---sometimes as they are caught by boat things. He's been running a two-page spread on global maritime news lately: the things that happen on the high seas will bug your eyes, especially regarding Big Boats. It's still a wild world out there---0ne that is almost unreported, unless you know where to look. But it's just plain, great relevant global news.

Hicks himself doesn't even boat much anymore. That's how clear it is that the boat is just a metaphor here. (This is the attitude I look for in anything I put into OYB.) Heck, I think he's in his late 70's---the flower of youth, if you consider the service he does with MAIB. Actually, what he does personally is fiddle with bikes. He designs and welds them up to help a quadripelegic friend. They go riding together on various tandems that Bob creates. He sometimes describes the various piles of stuff and outbuildings around his old home property in MA. I bet it's something!

[The copies I have for sale are fresh but not the latest issues. They're a great intro to the mag, tho.]

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