As a kid, Will Ansel would spend hours rowing the creeks around Annapolis, Maryland. From his boat he could look down on the wrecks of Chesapeake skipjacks, and watch the turtles sun themselves on deckbeams and the tops of centerboard trunks. He found other types of Chesapeake boats there too, including the old “log” boats. Years later, Will built scaled-down skipjacks, wrote about them, and eventually went to work at Mystic Seaport as a ships’ carpenter and boatbuilder. Will now lives in Georgetown, Maine, in an old house built at the water’s edge, with a small shop and dock. The inventory of boats and kayaks is currently seven. Besides keeping up, using, and adding to these, he does some writing and painting, and work around a cabin in the woods.