Family Week — July 11–17, 2021

Eric Schade was trained as a mechanical engineer, and has practiced that profession for 20 years.  In 1983 he built his first boat, a small strip-built canoe.  Since then he has built more than 50 small boats, including kayaks, canoes, rowing boats, and small sailboats.  In 1996 he founded Shearwater Boats to offer custom strip-built canoes and kayaks. Gradually Shearwater has developed to the point where it offers an extensive line of stitch-and-glue watercraft — kayaks, canoes, rowing boats, and sailboats. In 2005 Eric started designing boats for Chesapeake Light Craft. These new boats include Shearwater, Wood Duck, and Shearwater Tandem, which have all proven quite popular. Eric has taught boatbuilding at a number of shops and has mentored the construction of nearly 200 boats. This experience, and the feedback he gets from supervising the construction of his designs, not only has improved his skills as a builder, but has honed his skills as a designer. Eric’s greatest area of expertise is the computer-generated engineering of complicated and precise plywood boat kits that, when cut by computer-controlled machinery, can be assembled by amateurs.

John C. Harris owns Chesapeake Light Craft, the Annapolis-based purveyor of wooden boat kits and plans. His long tenure at CLC was preceded by a passion for boatbuilding and small craft that stretches back to earliest childhood. His first successful design was launched at age 14. More paddling, rowing, and sailing craft followed quickly, though he paused to get a degree in music—his second passion. After college he was determined to make a career as a boatbuilder and designer in the esoteric world of wooden boats. Eighteen years later, he’s shipped 24,000 boat kits and seen his designs built in more than 70 countries. His work as a designer and builder ranges from dinghies to large multihulls and from kayaks to powerboats. He lives on the shores of Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis with his wife, daughter, and an always-changing fleet of curious small boats.

David Bill sailed aboard Lasers, Lightnings, and Atlantic Class sailboats during his boyhood years on Long Island Sound. In 1981, Dave left Southeastern Connecticut and went to sea as a third assistant engineer aboard freight ships, tank ships, and container ships. In 1987 he earned his USCG 50-ton Master auxiliary sail license and continued his seafaring career on sailing charter yachts in the Caribbean and New England waters. In 1996 Dave returned to the University of Rhode Island to complete his Masters of Marine Affairs degree. Captain Dave instructed Nautical Science at Tabor Academy gor 30 years until 2018. For the past three years he has lived aboard his Shannon 28 DREAM in the Bahamas and in the Southeast. His greatest joy is messing around in boats with people of all ages, including his daughter Tayler.

Annie Nixon fell in love with the ocean and sailing right after college when she went to work for Thompson Island Outward Bound in Boston, Massachusetts. She learned to sail, navigate, and teach aboard their traditional 30′ open rowing and sailing vessels. Annie then spent four years at the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine, leading 21-day sailing wilderness trips for high school and college-age students. On these expeditions Annie captained both a 26′ Crotch Island Pinky and a 28′ Mackinaw Lake design. She taught elements of seamanship, wilderness “leave no trace” ethics, and marine ecology as part of these expeditions. On and off for seven summers after that Annie worked as deckhand and mate on the schooner MARY DAY and occasionally the schooner AMERICAN EAGLE. Since 2006 she has taught sailing at WoodenBoat School and led weeklong sail staff training expeditions for the Chewonki Foundation. Annie currently holds a USCG 100-ton license.