By the time he was ten, JOHN BROOKS had already learned quite a bit about how to sail and make boat models from his grandfather. Five years later, John joined his grandparents and other family members on a trip from the Pacific Northwest to South Africa. After 32,000 miles of sailing, John decided that he preferred working on boats to traveling. He studied engineering and journalism in college, then took his first job building fishing boats in Washington State. Within a year, he was building himself a skipjack and studying yacht design by mail. John moved to Maine in 1982, taking a job at The Hinckley Co. He worked for a number of other Maine yards over the years, and kept things interesting by also working for a keyboard maker, a cabinetmaker, and a custom furniture builder. John built his first glued-lapstrake built boat in 1984 and fell in love with the method. He started his own business designing and building small traditionally inspired, glued-lapstrake boats in 1991. John still loves to sail and row, and gets out of the shop onto the water whenever he can with his wife, writer, naturalist, and illustrator, Ruth Ann Hill. He and Ruth recently authored the book How to Build Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats, published by WoodenBoat Books. John and his family live in Brooklin.