Guides

Alec Brainerd

Boatbuilder, Artisan Boatworks

Alec Brainerd began his boating career painting bottoms at Seal Cove Boatyard in Harborside, ME, varnishing oars at Shaw & Tenney in Orono, and crewing aboard the 112’ Schooner Roseway… Read more & see his posts and videos

Ben Fuller

Curator, Penobscot Marine Museum

Ben started racing in one-designs, including his Jet 14, and continued during college. He took up whitewater paddling in graduate school, building and racing slalom and wild-water kayaks, then started… Read more & see his posts and videos

Brian Larkin

Lead Carpenter & Project Manager, Brooklin Boat Yard

Brian Larkin has been involved with boats his entire life. Born in Brooklin, Maine into a family of boat builders and yacht captains, Brian was surrounded by stories of boats … Read more & see his posts and videos

Brion Rieff

Boatbuilder & Designer, Brion Rieff Boat Builders

Brion Rieff has had a passion for sailing and building boats since he was a youngster growing up on Long Island Sound. He has worked in many boatyards, including institutions such as Derecktor’s… Read more & see his posts and videos

Brion Toss

Rigger, Brion Toss Yacht Riggers

Brion Toss is the author of The Rigger’s Apprentice, Chapman’s Guide to Knots, and other books. He has also produced videos on various aspects of rigging and conducts frequent rigging classes for… Read more & see his posts and videos

Dick Wagner

Founding Director, The Center for Wooden Boats

Dick Wagner started renting traditional small craft behind his 1909 floating home on Seattle’s Lake Union and, amazingly, made thousands of new friends who called his place a living museum… Read more & see his posts and videos

Doug Hylan

Boatbuilder & Designer, D.N. Hylan & Associates

Doug Hylan built his first boat at age 14: a disastrous catamaran with a propensity to bury her lee hull before realizing any adolescent-appropriate speeds. After a decade or so of dabbling in more… Read more & see his posts and videos

Ed McClave

Boat Restorer & Builder, MP&G

Ed McClave grew up in Groton, CT. After college (mechanical engineering, Rensselaer) and a stint as a naval officer, he began building and restoring wood boats. He worked in the boat shops at Mystic Seaport and Strawbery Banke… Read more & see his posts and videos

Ellen Massey Leonard

Circumnavigator, Yachting Writer:

Ellen had dreamt of crossing the Pacific in a small yacht since age 7 when she first sailed alone in a dinghy in British Columbia.  At age 14 she moved East to attend Phillips Exeter Academy’ … Read more & see her blogs

Geoff Kerr

Boatbuilder, Two Daughters Boatworks

Geoff Kerr does business as Two Daughters Boatworks in Westford, Vermont, on New England’s “west coast.” A boater since taking a Hurricane Island Outward Bound School course… Read more & see his posts and videos

Ginny Jones

Consultant, VineyardSailing.com

Ginny Jones is the heart and soul of Foxfire – a consulting firm located on Martha’s Vineyard. For 10 years Ginny was Secretary and researcher at the du Pont Preservation Shipyard, Mystic Seaport Museum… Read more & see her blogs

Gubby Willams

Designer & Boatbuilder, Heir Boat Works

Gubby Williams was born in Singapore to British parents. While growing up he was exposed to a wide variey of family boats including a wooden 18′ National centerboard dinghy, a Maltese ‘luzzu’ in which… Read more & see his blogs

Harry Bryan

Boatbuilder & Designer, Bryan Boatbuilding

Harry Bryan was born in 1945 and spent the summers of his childhood sailing, rowing, and fooling around in low-powered outboard boats on the Massachusetts shore. His parents’ … Read more & see his posts and videos

Havilah Hawkins

Captain & Designer, VELA & Windward Passage

Havilah Hawkins was born and raised into the family’s windjammer business, sailing on the schooners STEPHEN TABER, ALICE WENTWORTH, and MARY DAY which was designed by… Read more & see his posts and videos

Iain Oughtred

Designer

Iain’s first boating experience was in his native Australia where he spent six years racing 12′ centreboard boats like the National Gwen 12, designed by Charles Cunningham. Before leaving the country, he built seven… Read more & see his posts and videos

Kaci Cronkhite

Circumnavigator & Former Director of the

Wooden Boat Festival

A self-diagnosed woman of the wind, Kaci grew up on an Oklahoma cattle ranch, explored the wilderness of Alaska, sailed westabout around the world from 1995-2001, and has led the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival… Read more & see her posts and videos

Karen Sullivan

Blue Water Cruiser & Maritime Writer

The first time Karen at age 11 saw the ocean and became wonder-struck at the idea of no land over that horizon for thousands of miles, she fell in love. Since then, the mysteries of the ocean and the joys of sailing on…. Read more & see her posts and videos

Lance Lee

Tremolino Project, Apprentice Shop, Atlantic Challenge

On Nantucket Sound, a pram and sculling oar got Lance going in boats at age four. His “sea educators” were the Graves Waterbug, a Crocker Compass, a Stone Horse Jr, Wianno Seniors, Herreshoff 12 ½’s… Read more & see his posts and videos

Lin & Larry Pardey

Engineless circumnavigators, authors landlpardey.com

Lin (a 20-year-old bookkeeper, piano player) met Larry (a 26-year-old professional charter yacht skipper) in Newport Beach, California, when he was just starting to shape the oak keel timber for his first offshore cruising boat…Read more & see their posts and videos

Nat Benjamin

Boatbuilder/Designer, Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway

Nat has been sailing since he was a small boy, doing his first offshore delivery (to St. Thomas) when he was 20. When he arrived in the Caribbean there were still many classic yachts… Read more & see his posts and videos

Peter Neill

Director, World Ocean Observatory

Peter Neill serves as Director of the World Ocean Observatory and Ocean Classroom Foundation and as trustee of the Penobscot Marine Museum. He is former President (1985-2005) of the South Street… Read more & see his posts and videos

Queene Hooper Foster

Seamanship Instructor, WoodenBoat School

Queene (pronounced “Queen-ie”) didn’t have access to boats when she was small, so built model boats of scavenged parts and set them free in lakes, or placed them artfully in snowdrifts in order to take pictures, sometimes heeling them over during a blinding squall… Read more & see her posts and videos

Tom Cunliffe

Yachting Journalist, Author, and World Sailor, TomCunliffe.com

Tom Cunliffe is one of Britain’s leading writers on sailing and the sea. He was educated at a North of England grammar school and the University of Liverpool where he read law. In 1968, aged 21, he commenced a career in sailing which he has pursued ever since… Read more & see his posts and videos

Walt Ansel

Senior Shipwright, Mystic Seaport

Walt Ansel grew up in a boatbuilding and sailing family in Mystic, Connecticut. He has made his living either on or around wooden boats for the last thirty years. Walt is currently a senior shipwright at… Read more & see his posts and videos