Dear Editor:

As the summer season starts drawing to a close, it's an appropriate time to note thanks from those of us who inhabit the harbor for the services of the town's fine Harbor Master Nick Upham.

His presence is quietly effective and the harbor has gone from a way too tightly regulated place to one in which regulations are fairly enforced in an evenhanded way, but which doesn't lock the place down so tight that boaters pass it by; unfortunately, that was the case a few years back.

Terry and I have a mooring in the outer harbor, so we get a real view of various behavioral issues with which the harbor master has to deal.

Wakes are always the problem, particularly if one has a Boston Whaler along side, as we do; two or three seasons ago we had a wake that hit it so hard that it bent the Whaler railings. Not good. We've only had one or two instances this year where we had to tell people to slow down — unfortunately, one of them is a local boat, which not only didn't want to slow down, but sped up in retaliation I suppose.
 
Nick and his deputy have a professional and effective appearance around the harbor and we all really appreciate that.

Jon R. Doyle
Augusta