Murray Perce

Murray decided he wanted to slow his pace from the fast pace of the restaurant/bar business on the strip in Philadelphia and find a quiet, safe place to live and raise a family. This led him to Maine. After deciding where to live, he then decided to get into boat building because he had a love for anything to do with water.

Following his birth in Morocco, Murray lived in many US states during his childhood. His interest in boatbuilding came from his love of the water and being raised in a Navy family.

After attending the Washington County Community College in Eastport, and learning good basic boat building along with systems, welding and engines, Murray worked at Robinhood Marina in Harpswell, Boothbay Region Boatyard and Moose Island Marine in Eastport before coming to us at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard.

It seemed fitting that Murray recently celebrated his eighth wedding anniversary as he shared that what he does for fun and what he would like to be doing in five years is just spend time with his family. He has three children ages 6, 4 and 1, which keep him exceptionally busy. Murray and his wife, a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy, not only raise little ones but also have a retail store in Damariscotta, Maine Cloth Diapers to help us to live “green”.

As a person who enjoys working with people, he has an admirable goal of learning something new each day.

Leo Bronder-Giroux

During his childhood growing up in Malden, Massachusetts, Leo Bronder-Giroux attended the Courageous Sailing Center sailing school in Boston. That was it for Leo, he was hooked on sailing. Later, as a young adult, he became an instructor at the very school where he first learned to sail.

In the following few years, Leo adventured on sail boats to Key West and the Baja peninsula and spent some time at Marlboro College in Vermont.

In his free time, he likes to rock climb in gyms and ride bikes. He does have a big project ahead, which is to rebuilding an Alden 36’ yawl that he took ownership of last summer.

In the future, Leo would like to be involved in a non-profit organization that brings boat building to kids. Possibly, he could begin apprenticeships by mentoring local high school students in the art of shipbuilding.

Leo has been known to be the "morale officer" around the shipyard.

Justin Ingersoll

It is not often that a shipbuilder gets into the business by watching the tall ships in the Pirates of the Caribbean. But it is those ships that lured Justin Ingersoll into building ships. This seems like a full circle experience because the Bounty, which was the ship used in the Pirates of the Caribbean was rebuilt here at the shipyard in 2006-2007.

Justin later attended the Landing School in Kennebunkport, Maine to learn about boat building. This 10-month program, which Justin participated in was the Small Boats program. Loving the hands on education and building two types of wooden boats at the Landing School, he began his career as a shipwright.
After graduation, Justin came directly to the shipyard to work on wooden ships, which was his passion.

In Justin’s free time, he has recently picked up the love of hockey. But his longtime love of hunting is definitely at the top of his fun list. An expert in bird calls, he hopes to enter some contests on the national level. Check out Justin making a turkey, crow and owl calls. (See video)

His dream is to sail on a 17th century tall ship such as the Kalmar Nyckel, which is the tall ship of Delaware.

Richard Schwartz

This aeronautical engineer is passionate about both wooden ships and the marine world under the ships.

While growing up in Somerville, Massachusetts, Rich’s love of the shipbuilding world began with the colorful stories told to him by his grandfather and great grandfather. Many of these stories were from his great grandfather’s experiences on the celebrated Canadian schooner, Bluenose.

As a young adult, while living in Seattle and working at Boeing, Rich took a course on shipbuilding from the Center for Wooden Boats, where he build his first boat. Wooden boats continued to pull on his heartstrings, when he took an internship at the Apprenticeshop in Rockland, Maine. Eventually, Rich and his wife permanently relocated to Maine. After working at the Maine Maritime Museum, Great Island Boat Yard and Hodgdon Yachts, Rich got the chance to work here at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard on wooden ships and yachts.

In his spare time, Rich enjoys his love of photography and scuba diving often in the warm climates of Mexico and Central America. His dream would be to build his own wooden boat that he sails around the world.

Val Harris

Val Harris' journey to boat building has been a cross country journey, from stars of the screen to stars of the sea. Val’s first close connection with boats was in Texas, in high school. He went to a boat dealership with his father who was looking for a sailboat. Not only did his father find a boat, but Val began working for the dealership part time while he was in college and shortly after. In 1984, Val bought a wooden boat that needed restoring. Not knowing much about boat restoration at this time in his life, the project was not terribly successful. Harris eventually, cut up the boat and made furniture with part of the wood. Some of the furniture still remains in his possessions.

Later after leaving Texas, Val went to California to get into the movie business. After 14 years, in Hollywood, mostly as a set dresser, he wanted to know more about boat building, so for six months, he went to the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Hadlock, Washington.
He then went back to Hollywood for a few years, but now he had many building skills and another wooden boat that needed restoration.

After his second daughter was born, Val left the stars behind in Hollywood and moved to Maine along with his family and boat.
His first job in Maine was boat building at Hodgdon Yachts in East Boothbay. However, wood kept calling him and he was later hired here at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard to build and refit wooden boats.

Val’s wish for the future would be to sail his 31’ wooden cruising sloop with his wife and two daughters. Along with sailing, he would like to be building small traditional plank on frame boats.

Gilberto Fernandez (G)

This soft spoken, gentle shipwright truly appreciates his work here at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard. With little background in shipbuilding, Gilberto Fernandez or G, has an amazing attitude about his work and spreads his joyous spirit around the shipyard.

Planking, sanding and the prep work that goes into preparing a boat for the upcoming boating season are some of G’s favorite jobs.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Boothbay Harbor is quite a change from the city life. He seems to have taken to the small town life.

When G is not at the shipyard he loves to keep in great physical shape by running and mental shape by reading. Next semester he will be attending the University of Maine in Augusta in social services. He would like to help others in rehabilitation centers get back on track in their lives. G has spoken many times to the inmates of prisons about his life and how to turn their lives around.

G’s ideal future would be to work here at the shipyard and also work as a councilor.

Skip Collins

It is fitting at this time of the year that the shipwright of the week looks like the beloved Santa Claus. Skip Collins, with a warm countenance and white beard could pass for the man from the pole. However, this man with a white beard grew up in Boothbay Harbor and is more of an old salt than a Santa.

His father ran Brewer's Boatyard, which is now Boothbay Region Boatyard and this is where Skip started his career. His first job was a dock boy. Skip prefers to work in the mechanical areas of boats and shipyards instead of wood. Therefore, he helps keep the machines at the shipyard updated and running smoothly.

In 1965, Skip attended one of the first classes in shipbuilding from the Boothbay Region School.

Besides working at shipyards, Collins has operated and repaired machines used to obtain Irish moss from which, carrageen is extracted and used as an emulsifier and thickening agent in many food products as well as toothpaste.

In his spare time, Skip loves to participate in hard rock mining. He goes to a belt of mines from Maine to New Hampshire to look for gemstones. He began mining in a relatives feldspar mine. Feldspar was used in the glaze on china and was a very big business for a time. Some of the gemstones he mines for are: beryl or aquamarine, amethyst and tourmaline.
In the future, Skip would like to enjoy fishing and mining while traveling between Maine and Washington where his three grandchildren live.