GARY LOWELL was born and raised in a small town in Maine. After living in Wisconsin for six years, he moved with his first wooden boat to Greensboro, North Carolina. While studying broadcasting in college, Gary worked at the local TV station as a director and lighting director. While the job paid the bills, boatbuilding fed his soul. He began rescuing and repairing old, classic sailboats and sailing them along the North Carolina coast. A descendant of the well-known New England boatbuilding Lowell family, Gary couldn’t ignore his heritage any longer. In 1993, Gary left television to open his own boatbuilding shop. Starting in his backyard, the business has since grown to three  times the size. Lowell Boats Inc. is an award-winning boatshop specializing in classic runabout restoration. He has recently moved into a larger shop and has several employees, including his best worker, his 16-year-old son, Aaron. Gary often takes summers off to travel back to Maine with his wife Sarah and Aaron. Last summer he sailed his restored Cheoy Lee from the Chesapeake to Harpswell, Maine. He plans to sail the Maine coast for a few seasons before returning to warmer waters. In addition to boatbuilding, Gary keeps his hand in television by teaching in the broadcasting department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.