WADE SMITH is from Vermont—born on Lake Champlain, grew up on the Connecticut River, and matured on the not-quite-canoeable streams around Brattleboro and the glacial lakes too cold for swimming in the Northeast Kingdom—so he grew to like boats of all kinds. After college and a few years at a job making circuit boards, he had an epiphany upon reading WoodenBoat No.114 about Lance Lee: Maybe what you like and what is your job should be one and the same! Wade attended the Apprenticeshop and built many great boats, including MADIGAN, the Great South Bay catboat on the cover of WoodenBoat No.209. For 13 years, Wade worked in the Boat Shop at Mystic Seaport; for his first two years under Barry Thomas, who had been tapped by John Gardner to run the shop shortly after Gardner came to Mystic Seaport. Gardner developed his famous boatbuilding class over 20 years, and Barry took it over after John Gardner’s retirement. Wade, in turn, learned from Barry, and became the third and final Boat Shop Supervisor and Keeper of John Gardner’s original class. In 2006, Wade started working at Taylor & Snediker Woodworking in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, and was quickly drawn in by the challenges and rewards of working in one of the top boatbuilding shops in the country. Wade lives in North Franklin, Connecticut, with his beautiful wife Elizabeth, two charming dogs, two or three precocious cats, 10 or 12 lovely Land Rovers, and an uncountable number of enticing boat-like objects.