Welcome to Capt’n Pauley’s Place!
Before we get started, how about some introductions? I’m Paul Esterle, a boating writer, book author and editor. I am currently Technical Editor of Small Craft Advisor magazine and Managing Editor of Nor’easter magazine. I’ve finished one book, “Capt’n Pauley’s Boat Repairs & Upgrades” and have a second, “Maintaining and Improving Your Powerboat” due out in July of 2009.
I’ve written literally hundreds of articles about boat repairs, maintenance and improvements in such magazines as SAIL, Voyaging, Power & Motor Yacht, Dockside, Santana, Blue Water Sailing, Long Island Boating World as well as for Nor’easter and Small Craft Advisor. I also write and host a weekly radio show, Radio Nor’easter on WCTR, am1530m out of Chestertown, Maryland. I’m located at the head of Chesapeake Bay and have three project boats underway at this time. I’ve built several boats as well as having designed and manufactured recreational hovercraft in a previous life.
I’m an active member of many online forums and chat groups, from microcruisers up to trawlers and such. One of my frustrations in belonging to those groups is there is a fairly constant turnover in participants. New members sign on looking for answers to their boating problems and questions. In most cases, these questions have been dealt with and answered several times over. However, those new members have no idea what went before. As a result, older members, the very ones with all the answers, get tired of answering the same old questions over and over again and often drop out of the group.
I’ve tried a couple of solutions to the problem. On one hand, I’ve got a huge reservoir of content that would answer many of those questions. On the other hand, making that content available is a problem. First of all, I make my living selling words and pictures. Giving it away on a web site doesn’t make economic sense, not if I want to be able to keep my boats.
I’ve posted some pictures on my current web site www.captnpauley.com, but formatting and posting them takes a certain amount of time. I offer some of the information in the form of CD’s and DVD’s, but that also takes an enormous amount of formatting and time.
I also attempted to maintain information, tips and ideas about one of the groups I belong to, the Columbia Yacht Owners Association, in an online archive on their web site. It turned out taking an incredible amount of time filtering the emails, extracting the information and posting it to the web site. It was unworkable.
This all leads me to this current attempt. Blogging software and service providers have made great strides in convenience and usability. After looking at several of the suppliers of those services and their offerings, I’ve decided to take the plunge and start offering some of that boating content on this site, supported by advertisers and donations. We’ll see how it goes!
I hope you find the information useful and an inspiration to get out there and work on your own boat.
Capt'n Pauley (Paul Esterle)
ps: I'm not a real captain, that's a nickname bestowed on me by my non-boating friends..
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Looks good Paul, good luck to you.
Posted by: Wayne Ridsdale | February 12, 2009 at 09:30 PM
Great looking site. I know I'll find lots of advice to make my C22 better in every respect. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Pat Shuman | February 12, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Great site! Great attitude toward solving problems that face every boater. Learned a few tricks just by scanning the first page!
Posted by: Dianne & Vince Purcell | February 12, 2009 at 07:27 AM