I'm Chuck Leinweber, founder of Duckworks Magazine, Duckworks Boat Builder's Supply and the Texas200. I am trying to raise enough money for Bob Hicks to have the entire catalog of Messing About In Boats Magazine digitized and offered as a free download online. I met Bob early this century when he was having pretty good success with MAIB and I was just starting with Duckworks Magazine. We were digital and he was strictly print. We had a great relationship - both promoting small boats, their construction and the resulting adventures in them. For years we sold subscriptions to MAIB and later I convinced Bob to offer his magazine as a digital option. Eventually both magazines ran out of subscribers, and had to shut down. But there is a ton of great content in the back issues of both publications. Duckworks Magazine is still online as an archive and I would like to see MAIB go on as well.

Bob Hicks is going to give Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum permission to digitize their collection of MAIB. Bob will digitize about 60 of his issues to fill in their gaps, and the existing PDFs will fill out the rest. You'll be able to search, view online or download the whole collection for free. I'm trying to raise about $500 for Bob and another $4k for Phillips to cover their digitization costs.

Even if you never heard of MAIB, but you are a small boat fan, please consider donating something to help make this happen. What a great resource this would be. I'm going to start things with $500 of my own money. Please donate what you can and tell your friends.