The 62nd annual Boothbay Harbor Windjammer Days will take place on Sunday, June 23 through Saturday, June 29. This year we will celebrate our local boatbuilders and shipwrights. Please visit boothbayharborwindjammerdays.org for the full schedule of events.

My family has a small Catboat that my grandfather had built which we keep at Riverside Boat Company in Newcastle. I would often help my dad with the seasonal prep and loved everything about that yard: the smells, the beautiful boats, the busy riverfront, the horseshoe crabs. It was always a place of calm but hard work that I admired.

After attempting city life with a desk job I found myself missing that boatyard energy and in 2012-2013 attended the Carpenters Boatshop apprenticeship program. There I fell in love with all aspects of woodworking and have been working on boats, both personal and in yards, ever since. I have always loved sailing and the form of a well-designed boat so it was easy to see myself in this field. But what really attracted me to the work is the intersection of art and engineering. The fairing of lines on a boat to make it move smoothly through the water. The challenge of building something out of wood that can remain strong and float with all the dynamic forces working on it.

Paul Bryant was my uncle (he just passed this spring), and it was his steady presence and big smile that helped make Riverside such a special place for me as a kid. I could always see how much joy he got out of his life's work and it was really inspiring. I had a 30-foot sloop which I kept at Riverside and it was on that boat that I really cut my teeth as a builder, under Paul's and his son Nat's patient and invaluable guidance.

David Short was the Master Shipwright on the Ernestina project at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard. He was an amazing mentor in all the practical areas of boat building, but the most significant lesson I carry with me from him is to not dwell on mistakes. It does not matter what or how something happened, only how do we move on and fix it.

Rebuilding Fraulein which is hull No. 1 in the Boothbay One Designs was a very fun and interesting challenge. We turned a traditional carvel planked boat into a double layered cold molded hybrid using the original planks at half thickness glued on top of new cedar planks.

The most significant project remains Ernestina. A restoration of that magnitude does not come along often where you get to rebuild almost every part of a schooner of that size. It was an amazing hands on course in schooner construction that no schooling or book can ever replace. I got to build a solid wood rudder for her - purple heart post with white oak blade - and I'm fairly certain that is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will be forever grateful for.

In the past year I have followed in David Short's footsteps as head boatbuilder at the Shipyard. I don't expect to fill his shoes by any means, but my aspiration for the coming years is to be the kind and patient mentor and friend to others that he was to me.