Do You Understand Max Ebb? There Are All Kinds of Sailors

We have to admit that, despite reading Max Ebb every month for decades, we often don’t understand what the heck he’s talking about. We often understand Lee Helm even less. That doesn’t mean we’re not one of the many avid fans of this very popular, somewhat esoteric column that has run in almost every issue of Latitude 38 since 1980. The sailing community is an eclectic bunch, including poets and artists, as well as engineers and physicists. Max and Lee’s fans lean toward that scientific side.

After three days at the recent, successful Sausalito Boat Show, we were again reminded of Max’s fan base as many readers stopped by the booth to let us know, “I love Max and read it every month.” The science can be mind-boggling, the characters are always intriguing, and we’re forever surprised at the many unique ways Max suddenly finds Lee in the story helping him understand the technical aspects of sailing. In addition to Lee, there are often unexpected guests like Flo Field, who showed up in this month’s column and is a colleague of Lee Helm in the naval architecture department, and an expert in computational hydrodynamics. This month the three of them were joined by Max’s two boatbuilder buddies visiting from back East, Doug Furr and Rose Wood.

We’re not sure how many of Max and Lee’s fans actually understand what they’re talking about, but we do know that they’ve had a fan base for 46 years. And, amazingly, as smart as Lee Helm is, she still hasn’t completed grad school. Max reports that readers often ask if Lee Helm will ever finish her graduate degree. “Will Charlie Brown ever kick the football?”

While talking with readers at the boat show, we found readers who love all the sections from Letters to Classifieds and everything in between. We’re also reminded how many different kinds of sailors there are, and how many fans enjoy the sometimes-incomprehensible stories by Max Ebb.

Can you explain this month’s column to us?