Capt. GARTH WELLS grew up racing Beetle Cats on Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He first sailed schooners when he shipped as a deck hand on the LADY MARYLAND, a pungy schooner used as a floating class room teaching seamanship and environmental awareness. Enjoying the schooner life but wanting to return to New England, Garth got a position as mate on board the schooner LEWIS R. FRENCH out of Rockland, Maine. He eventually worked his way up the chain of command and in 2003 took over from Capt. Dan and Kathy Pease as captain and owner. In between summer windjammer seasons, he has kept busy working on boats. He has spent time sailing to and from the Caribbean, and up and down the California coast. He worked on the last active commercial fishing schooner in the U.S., the KATHRYN M. LEE, dredging oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. Garth has participated on several large schooner refits here in Maine, and has helped restore several skipjacks in th eChesapeake area. He also served onboard the brig NIAGARA as an able-bodied seaman, taking her from Virginia up the Northeast coast, through the Canadian Maritimes, and down the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. What does he do in his freetime? Well, now that Garth owns and skippers the LEWIS R. FRENCH he has no free time, but hopes that someday he will.