GRAHAM BYRNES was born in and lived his early years in Brisbane, Australia. From his earliest memories, he was a “river rat” on the Brisbane River only a few blocks from his home. He started building and sailing his own boats from his earliest formative years. Graham was indentured in a boatbuilding apprenticeship program for a five-year period,   went to Queensland Central Technical College to study yacht design, and graduated with a degree in small-craft design. In 1984, Graham and his wife, Carla, chose the North Carolina coast as a place to settle and started B & B Yacht Designs. The combination of the hands-on training in traditional and modern construction, along with the academic background, has made his designs a hit with professional boatbuilders. His ability to create designs and develop building techniques that are simple, combined with having taught boatbuilding at the local community college level for the last 25 years, have made many of his designs particularly suited to amateur builders who not only get to create really beautiful boats in simple ways, but who learn boatbuilding in the process—all while having fun.