Matthew Murphy '87 was giving a tour of the WoodenBoat School one day last spring when a man strode up to a boat shed and introduced himself. The visitor, Al Grinspoon of Maryland, with the U.S. Department of Naval History, said he was retiring in a ceremony on the historic sailing ship U.S.S. Constellation in Baltimore Harbor. WoodenBoat magazine had done a feature story on the Constellation's restoration, he noted. Grinspoon told Murphy, "If you're the editor of this magazine, it's sacrilege if you don't come and see her."

Murphy understood.

Most readers of WoodenBoat would understand if Murphy didn't make it to Baltimore (invitations pour in faster than unsolicited manuscripts) but they also would know why a reader might travel to Brooklin, Maine, to invite the editor to his retirement party. WoodenBoat readers are a brotherhood, and the magazine, if it is not their Bible, is certainly part of the canon.

With Murphy at the helm, WoodenBoat goes out every month to 105,000 subscribers from Maine to the Pacific Northwest to remote South Pacific islands. Billing itself as the magazine for wooden boat owners, builders and designers, it offers everything from boat plans to travel stories (about trips in wooden boats, of course) to how-to stories on the nuts and bolts–or planks and screws–of wooden boat building and restoration. Proof that you don't have to be in Manhattan to be in the magazine business, WoodenBoat's offices are in a turn-of-the-century mansion overlooking Eggemoggin Reach and the islands of East Penobscot Bay. For Murphy, a WoodenBoat reader and boat builder since high school, it's a nautical paradise. "Honestly," he said. "It just never seemed realistic that I would work here."

He tacked his way to the job, working on wooden sailing yachts as a kid in Salem, Mass., studying biology at Colby, going on to earn a master's degree in marine affairs from the University of Rhode Island. Murphy was working in a Rhode Island boat yard when he spotted a classified ad for an associate editor at WoodenBoat and applied. His publication experience was limited to one semester as photo editor of The Colby Echo. "WoodenBoat has a solid tradition of hiring people who don't have any experience in their job," Murphy said.

But he learned, soon moving up from associate editor. Murphy writes occasionally (his first story was on ice boats–wooden, of course) but mostly edits stories, fishes through unsolicited proposals and develops the stories. Most magazines require advance planning, but WoodenBoat story development can stretch for years. One project was begun five years ago when the magazine decided to do a piece on building a Lightning-class sloop. The magazine had one built.

Editing such stories requires being more than a grammarian. Murphy built his first boat, a rowing shell, when he was 15. He's rebuilding a 28-foot sailboat but may not see that one through. "I've had an eye on this boat for eight years," Murphy said, holding up a snapshot from his desk. "It was built in 1926. It's been neglected. . . ."

It seems Murphy would rather talk boats than talk about himself. WoodenBoat readers would understand that, too.

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