Captain, VELA & Windward Passage

Havilah Hawkins was born and raised into the family’s windjammer business, sailing on the schooners STEPHEN TABER and ALICE WENTWORTH, as well as the MARY DAY, which was designed by his father and launched in 1962. “Haddie” has held a 100-ton auxiliary sail license to carry passengers for hire for over 30 years.

Along the way he has run charter yachts in the Caribbean, fished winters from offshore draggers in the gulf of Maine, delivered yachts, and worked in several boatyards building and repairing everything from large traditional sailing vessels to modern composite yachts. To earn a living in the winter “Haddie” works as a long-haul trucker, and he earlier had his own cottage business manufacturing wooden toys.

In 1996, he and his wife Beverly launched their 50-foot gaff headed sloop VELA of Haddie’s design, and daysailed her commercially for eleven years out of Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard while raising their family onboard.

Since 2007 the Hawkins family has remained at home in their native Sedgewick, Maine during the summers and have found a new calling and purpose in working with the Windward Passage organization, using VELA to give youngsters from all walks of life a firsthand experience under sail.