Mark’s training as a boat builder came while working for Joel White and his son Steve White at the Brooklin Boat Yard. This yard is well known for building both fast and beautiful wooden yachts, as well as maintaining a fabulous fleet of traditional wooden boats. During Mark’s tenure at the yard he had the opportunity to build and work on many boats both small and large, including the first of the W class Wild Horses, the 1937 Purdy commuter yacht Aphrodite, and the prototype of the Joel White designed Pooduck. He was involved in all aspects of the construction process, from laying the backbones to gilding their names. Mark also had the opportunity to teach a class on building the shellback dinghy for several summers at the Wooden Boat School. While doing all this he maintained his own wooden sailboats, and spent as much of his spare time as possible cruising the waters of Penobscot Bay and surrounds.
Now living in Vermont Mark has become well known for building sweet small boats, including shellbacks, nutshells, and peapods, as well as rebuilding and refurbishing boats of all kinds. He continues to maintain and enjoy his own fleet on the lakes and rivers of southern Vermont.
