Bree wins West Marine Writer’s Award
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Marlin Bree, a freelance writer, lecturer and author of several boating books, has won the top award Boating Writers International gives to a boating writer – The West Marine Writer’s Award, the writers’ association reported in a recent statement.
Bree, of St. Paul, Minn., received the award, consisting of a $5,000 check and a lucite tower trophy, from West Marine Director of Marketing Randy Barberis and BWI President Michael Sciulla, during the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
Bree’s article, “A Solo Sailor Meets His Storm of the Century,” published in June 2003 by The Ensign, tells the story of his encounter with a storm on Lake Superior during the summer of 1999. Weather conditions were benign when Bree set off for a solo holiday cruise aboard his 20-foot home-built sloop. Though he expected an easy run, he prepared the boat for the open waters of the big lake, closing hatches, tying lines and tightening rigging, setting marine radios, and buckling into a safety harness, BWI reported.
His precautions proved lifesavers as a powerful, “green storm” raced from shore with reported 110-mph winds resulting in one of the biggest blow downs ever recorded. Bree’s lucid and stunning report of the battle to save his craft and himself provides a “pot-boiler” story and an account of survival when best-laid plans aren’t enough.
Judges for the West Marine Writer’s Award are associated with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and have had careers in newspapers, magazines and broadcasting. They include: Richard J. Roth, associate dean and associate professor; Greg Stephan, adjunct lecturer at Medill; and Trish Richardson, a former reporter and editor and current senior director of development at the DePaul University College of Law.
The judges described the article as “a real page-turner. Compelling, engaging writing that is as fast-moving as the storm that engulfed this sailor on what started off as a clear, calm day on Lake Superior. The writing is vivid in detail about what the sailor was seeing, feeling and thinking — all of that providing insights and lessons for others who could as easily find themselves suddenly in the eye of a storm.”
The judges cited two additional entries for special comment:
Bree’s article was in the Seamanship, Rescue & Safety category earlier this year, one of 38 award winners in the 2003 Boating Writers International annual Writing Contest. The top three entries in each of 13 writing categories were automatically entered for this grand prize, BWI stated.
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