What we collect

If you submit the Classifieds form, we collect your name, phone number, email, and any vessel and scope information you provided. We store this in our local intake system (a spreadsheet on the shop office computer; backed up nightly to a local encrypted drive). We do not transmit the data to any third party other than what is described below.

If you subscribe to the journal, we collect your mailing address, email, and payment method. We process payment through Stripe (the standard Stripe data-handling agreement applies; see stripe.com/privacy). We store your mailing address in the shop intake system for as long as your subscription is active, plus one year for renewal reminders.

If you visit this site, our hosting provider (Cloudflare, see cloudflare.com/privacypolicy) logs anonymized request metadata: IP address (truncated after 24 hours), referring URL, user agent. We do not run any analytics scripts, any ad networks, any tracking pixels, or any third-party JavaScript. The site uses no cookies of any kind.

What we do not collect

We do not collect: any data through cookies; any data through tracking scripts; any data through advertising networks; any biometric or location data; any data from children; any data we do not need to do the work you have asked us to do.

How long we keep it

Classifieds intake data: as long as the refit is open, plus seven years for tax and warranty record-keeping. Subscription data: for the active subscription term plus one year. Site request logs: 30 days, then anonymized to aggregate counts.

Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent, or transfer your information to any third party for any commercial purpose. The exceptions: (1) Stripe, for payment processing on subscriptions; (2) our printer (Tide & Tide Press, Tacoma), for mailing label generation only; (3) the Washington State Department of Revenue and the IRS, for tax compliance; (4) any party we are required by court order or other lawful process to share data with, in which case we will notify you unless the order forbids us from doing so. That is the whole list.

Your rights

You have the right to know what we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted (subject to our seven-year tax-record retention requirement), and to receive a copy of it. To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@bhwet.example. We respond within ten business days.

The big picture

We are a six-person plumbing shop in a working harbor. We have no commercial interest in your data beyond providing the service you have asked us for. We have no marketing automation. We do not build customer profiles. We do not, even, send a newsletter. The journal arrives in your mailbox six times a year if you have subscribed; otherwise we do not contact you. This is the entire policy and we do not anticipate changing it.

For the contact and shop hours, see the Visit page. For accessibility issues with this site, see the Colophon. For technical questions, see the Letters department.

Last reviewed 19 May 2026. Reviewed annually on the May issue's production cycle.