Sailing Maine #151

Janet Acker:

My favorite day of instructing kids is when you put a little 7 year old, 8 year old child in a little boat by themselves the first day and at the end of the first day they are sailing. And it's just incredible to go from 0 to 60 in one day with these kids and the parents are blown away. The kids, they don't know any better, so they're just running around thinking it's great. But it's just such an incredible thing to watch that leap of experience all so quickly. And kids take to it very, very quickly. I would say 90% of kids take to it very quickly when they're that young, I suppose, like skiing.

Jess McGreehan:

There are a whole bunch of different ways to experience sailing. So whether you go the competitive route or you go the route of pleasure cruising or just using the vessel as a, as a way of experiencing being on the water, that's an option.

Matt Barton:

With sailing, nothing's more rewarding than being able to draw a design on your desk, issue a shop floor drawing, and then being responsible for that drawing on the floor, knowing that the carpenter, the mechanic that's assembling that part is going to come knocking on your door if you made any mistakes. And I find that really very rewarding.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast Show Number 151, Sailing Maine, airing for the first time on Sunday, August 3, 2014. Summer is a great time to be on the water. Join our conversations with people who love navigating Maine waters by boat and have made it possible for others to do the same. Janet acker and Jess McGregon share their experience with Portland's Sail Main organization and Matt Barton describes his rewarding transition from financial consultant to boat builder at the Hinkley Company by way of the Landing School. Thank you for joining us. One of the things that I most enjoy myself is sailing and unfortunately I don't get much of a chance to do it. But it's something I learned as a camper and it's something that stayed with me my whole life. So the people who are here today, I'm very pleased that they get to enjoy this on a regular basis. We have Janet Acker. Janet has sailed her whole life and while living on the west coast, she founded and developed a community based sailing program known as Sail Orcas. Today she is the executive director of Sail Maine. On her time off, she is an avid sailor with her husband. Thanks for coming in, Janet.

Janet Acker:

Thank you very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And the other person we have with us is Jess McGregoon, who learned to sail at Sail Main and later went on to race competitively in high school and college. She has worked as an adult instructor, junior program instructor and high school sailing coach at Sail Main. This summer, she will connect their sailing curriculum with environmental education. Thank you for coming in.

Jess McGreehan:

Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So sailing, it's kind of an interesting. From what I can tell, it's a very interesting group of people who become so committed to something that kind of. Well, it's interesting. Boats are very. They kind of take a lot of time, they take a lot of attention. And yet people who love to sail, love to sail, are passionate about sailing. Why for each of you, is this the case?

Janet Acker:

I think I started sailing very young as sort of a family activity. And I think many people start sailing within their family unit. And so it becomes something that gives wonderful memories. And then as you grow up and you become an adult, you carry that with you. Because sailing is the kind of sport that isn't something that you only do as a child or in high school or in college, and then you put it away. It's a lifelong sport. Anybody can sail. Even people with handicaps can sail. So I think that the other wonderful thing about sailing is that it is not a. It can be co ed, it could be competitive, it can be non competitive, it can be a team sport, it can be an individual sport. There's so many different ways that you can enjoy sailing that it really opens up a lot to people in many, many different ways in many different age groups.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And what about you, Jess?

Jess McGreehan:

Yeah, I think Janet touched upon a few things that I really feel passionate about with sailing. And that is I really find that sailing offers a wide variety of experiences. So from racing to just pleasure cruising, to using it as a vehicle to explore new territory. And also sailing is so full and rich of tradition, so, you know, dating back to original sailors and, and Polynesian navigation and investigation of like new lands and new worlds, but also within, like family units. And my family didn't sail, so I didn't grow up sailing. But I feel really fortunate that I was brought into sailing via kind of a non traditional route, but kind of a new age in the tradition, which is like community sailing. And the idea that that sailing, you know, can be for anyone. You don't have to. Your family doesn't have to have a boat to be a sailor and to enjoy the water, like there's still ways to access the water.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So community sailing is pretty fascinating because it does bring something that for some people might not have been accessible right into the community. And I think that's what Sail Maine

Janet Acker:

is trying to do exactly. The whole purpose of Sail Main is to provide access to sailing and to the waters, specifically with Sail Main of Casco Bay, to people that don't have other outlets for that. We make it affordable. We make it accessible to children and adults, regardless of their ability to afford to have a boat or to sail. We try to, to bring as much diversity into the program as we can. We want to be sure that everyone who is a Portland resident knows that they can come and sail at Sail Main regardless, and we have lots of opportunities for that to happen.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And Sail Main is located just right down the street from us.

Janet Acker:

Right down the street. It's right down on the waterfront, right next to the cruise ship terminal and Portland Yacht, excuse me, Portland Yacht Services. We're very open. It's a small little spot, but we're very open and we love to have people come through and see what we're doing. I'm sure many people, people in the Portland area have seen the little sailboats down there in the summertime, in the fall and the spring, and wondered what's going on down there. But that's Sail Main. We offer high school racing programs for six area high schools in the greater Portland area in the fall and the spring. Each of those programs has nearly 100 students racing. And then we offer junior sailing during the summer months for kids from the age of five all the way through 17. And then we offer adult programming for adult lessons. Learn to sail, learn to race. And we also have, new to us last year, a fleet of J22 keelboats that we rent to qualified adults to either race or just to go out and have a wonderful day, sail on a weekend or an evening. And those are available to anyone who has, you know, can get certified Best to have the skills to use those boats. So we welcome everyone to come down and sail with us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So when people are out walking around the trail at the bottom of the Eastern Prom and they look over and they see the sailboats and the big sign that says Sail Maine, that's you. That's us. When were you founded? How long have you been in existence?

Janet Acker:

Sail Maine was founded in 1996, but it was sort of a smaller program, an adjunct, a little bit of the University of Southern Maine. And it kind of stayed that way for a number of years. But within the last eight years is when it's really sort of exploded into a very cohesive, large program. We now have over 100 boats, and over the course of the year, we'll serve in one form or another, close to 1,000 people.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what was the impetus eight years ago, or even as far back as 1996, to create this program? Who decided that this was an important thing that needed to be here in Portland?

Janet Acker:

There are a number of people in this area that felt strongly that Portland needed to have a community sailing program. There are a number of yacht club programs around, but there wasn't something that was open to everyone, regardless of membership. So a couple of those people that were involved in this, the genesis of this idea, were Chris Robinson, Phineas Sprague, and Win Fowler. Those three gentlemen sort of came together in one form or another, started planted the seed that has grown into Salemaine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And Phineas Sprague is the one who's also responsible for the little railroad that runs down the bottom of the Eastern Prom. Where did you grow up, Jess?

Jess McGreehan:

I grew up in South Portland, so just across the bridge. And I went to South Portland High School. There was a little bit of time where we were actually in central Maine, which was probably the worst part of the family history, as everyone would say, because we were so sad to be away from the ocean. But then we moved back to South Portland, and as a freshman in high school, I was looking for something new to do, and I saw a flyer somewhere, and it said, learn how to sail. And back then, it was a bit of a different program. We had only a few boats, maybe six boats at the time, and it was a whole bunch of different high school students, so. Waynefleet, Yarmouth, Falmouth, Greeley, South Portland, Portland. And I think there were about 12 of us total. And we met at Sail Main and we had a coach and learned to sail and learned to race.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And your family wasn't really a sailing family prior to that point?

Jess McGreehan:

Nope, nope. Yep. They don't really enjoy sailing as much as I do, but they will humor me and allow me to take them out on the water. But they don't really enjoy the thrills of heeling over, which is when the boat tips to one side or tips to another. I've never made them capsize, of course, which is when the boat goes fully over. But I definitely enjoy. I enjoy the speed and the feeling of the boat connecting with the wind and the water and going fast. And they. Well, it's not their cup of tea.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what was that like to be in a family that of non sailors? Janet, you came from a family of sailors, so your experience was very different than yours, Jess?

Jess McGreehan:

Yeah, well, back in the day, my dad actually used to sail quite a bit and then he went away from the water and hasn't really been back to the water. But I remember growing up hearing sailing stories, like going to bed. He would tell us stories of when he was out on the water sailing. And so I think actually the seed was planted a long, long time ago. And I was always curious about the ocean. And then when I got the opportunity to go sailing, it kind of. For me it just feels like it all connects. Like it's all there and. And it just. There's like. There's nothing like the feeling of being on a boat with the wind blowing through your hair and the water spraying up and the sun coming down, or even rain. Rain's fine. And sometimes snow. You know, you gotta have that open attitude if you're from Maine. But yeah, I would say that just because my family didn't sail didn't mean that I wasn't going to be able to experience that and have my own time on the water. And they were very supportive of me and they wanted to make sure I wore a life jacket and things like that. But otherwise, yeah, there was a lot of support from them. It's just turned into be kind of something that Jess did in the family.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know when I was at Yarmouth, there really wasn't anything to do with sailing or boats, the high school itself, which is sad because I probably would have liked to gravitate towards that. What's really nice is that it has become very popular now. We do have people who sail and we do have people who row crew and things like that. And I think it just broadens the opportunity for people who, they want to be active, they want to be outdoors, but they don't necessarily want to be playing soccer, they don't necessarily want to be running. It just allows People to do something that just resonates more with them at a younger age.

Jess McGreehan:

Definitely. And like what we were, what Janet and I were saying earlier, there are a whole bunch of different ways to experience sailing. So whether you go the competitive route or you go the route of, you know, pleasure cruising or just, just kind of using that, using the vessel as a, as a way of kind of experiencing being on the water,

Janet Acker:

that's an

Jess McGreehan:

option with sailing and that's an option for our high school students and also for our junior program, the younger sailors. Because not everyone is into the competitive aspect of racing. Just like if there's a soccer team, there could be a competitive side and then there could be a club team where people get together and just have fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What have you noticed from people who have come up through the program, Janet? People that how has it changed the way that they approach the world?

Janet Acker:

Sailing is such a great lesson for life skills. You know, kids come through a sailing program having tremendous self confidence and self reliance and the ability to sort of troubleshoot and to manage chaos. A lot of sailing can be not always, but you know, sort of chaos because the wind will shift or the, or you know, another boat will come very close to you or something like that. And you have to figure out how to get yourself out of that situation. So I think kids really learn very quickly how to manage stress, how to be self reliant, how to think ahead. Because when they're learning how to sail to a point and go around that point and they have to sort of anticipate and look at three steps ahead of where they are now. And it's really truly a remarkable thing to see kids grow. My favorite day of instructing kids is when you put a little 7 year old, 8 year old child in a, in a little boat by themselves the first day and at the end of the first day they are sailing. And it's just incredible to go from, you know, zero to 60 in one day with these kids. And the parents are blown away. The kids, you know, they don't know any better. So they're just running around thinking it's great. But it's just such an incredible thing to watch that, that leap of experience all so quickly. And kids take to it very, very quickly. I would say 90% of kids take to it very quickly when they're that young, I suppose, like skiing. The kids that go through our program tend to sort of stay with us. They come back year after year after year and then as they get into that age group, they can then come back and have summer jobs with us, which is really wonderful. They come and learn how to be assistant instructors and then they come back and they're full instructors and then they may go on to college and they or they may just continue to sail recreationally. So it's really, I think a lot of our students come through and they really buy into the whole thing and it stays with them for a very long time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast, we've long recognized the link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the topic is Tom shepherd of Shepherd Financial.

Matt Barton:

Sometimes I meet with married or partnered clients and when we get to talking about their financial lives, a cultural divide bubbles to the surface. One person feels one way about their money and the other seems to be on their own financial island with a set of beliefs and rules that have created unnecessary borders and boundaries. It's not an uncommon thing. And when I hit those situations, I do my best to help both people understand that neither is 100% right or wrong, that they simply have to take a step back and look at their own financial life in a new light. It is also true in politics and economics. What we need to do is see money as a living thing that can be used to grow our lives together without disagreement or so called border issues. It's a great feeling for me. It's like I'm helping people negotiate peace treaties with their money. Be in touch if you want to know more. Tom at Shepherd Financial Maine will help you evolve with your money.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

what about the teamwork and the team building aspect to sailing? Is that something that you see as being of benefit to the people who are coming through?

Jess McGreehan:

Definitely. I know from my personal experience learning to sail and working at Sail Main teamwork has been a major lesson that I have learned and through teamwork I've learned skills like, you know, competency because you know you have to be able to. My sailing coach used to say you have to have the skills to pay the bills. So he would say you know, like, let's learn how to do this skill really solidly. And the whole team would work together, even though we were on separate boats, but we would work together to like strengthen our individual skills, which then in turn strengthened the entire team. We learned. I learned a lot about effective communication and how to not only communicate in a non verbal way with someone that I was in a boat with, just using body language to move the boat together in an efficient way, but also how to communicate with my team on the water and off the water too. And definitely learned a lot about what Janet was saying with like judgment and decision making. So there's times when you have to be, as a sailor, you have to be really decisive and directive and you don't have time to consult anybody because the, the boat will tip over. And then there are other times where you say, well, like maybe there's some strategy that needs to go into this and what do you think we should do? And we all kind of consult because there are many, many ways to sail a boat. And that is the really cool thing is when you start putting a whole bunch of people together on a boat, a whole bunch of individuals to become that team, you know, you come up with a much bigger, brighter, better picture of a way to do something. And that's what I find really inspiring about working with others on a boat.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've both had the opportunity to sail in places other than Maine. What is it about Maine that is different and special?

Janet Acker:

Well, I think the fact that the coast of Maine is so. Well, there are more miles of Maine coastline, I think, than there are of California or anywhere else. It is truly one of the most spectacular places to cruise in the world. People come from all over the world to charter here. It's not without its difficulties, though. Maine water is not like the Pacific Northwest and Washington State, where it's beautiful also, but it's deep everywhere you go. Maine has lots of ledges and rocks and things to avoid. So people have to be really on their game navigationally here in Maine, which, which is part of the challenge and part of the fun. I think a lot of, a lot of sailors enjoy that aspect of sailing. It's sort of the, the book work that has to go with the, the, the sailing part of it. So. But the most amazing thing about the coast of Maine is that you can be in a cove by yourself pretty much every night on a cruise and you can't say that about many other places in the country for cruising grounds. So I think it's just a remarkable

Jess McGreehan:

place I would say for me, just getting the exposure to sailing in Maine first was or is a seed that has been planted that I will always want to come back here. Because after going through college and getting some certifications through Sail Maine, I was fortunate enough to be able to sail on a few big boats down in the Caribbean, across the west coast from Mexico to French Polynesia. I did a whole bunch of cruising with my last job in Baja, Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez. And still, still I dream about sailing in Maine. I dream about coming back to Maine and being on the water here because of the things that Janet mentioned. But just, it's just so beautiful and so pristine and it is. You know, Maine is unique in that even if everybody started sailing here, there would still be space to have your own little cove. There'd be a little nook or cranny at an island that you never knew existed until you looked at the chart and said, oh, wow, that's just a rock pile. But actually it's a little island that we can go visit. And yeah, I just really appreciate how dynamic sailing in Maine is, not only with the weather and the water, but the tide and also just the variations in the land formations along the rocky coast.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It also sounds like you are able to reconnect people with something that is bigger than their iPhone, bigger than the Internet. You're reconnecting them with the water, the wind, the land masses, the islands. That seems pretty important.

Janet Acker:

Absolutely. I think one great thing about the junior programs is that kids get out there completely away from all technology and they're in either with another sailor or by themselves or with a couple other sailors. So there's a lot of different variations of how their interaction with other people goes. And they have to talk. You're in a cockpit, you're in a four foot square space, and you have to talk with each other. And I think we've lost a lot of that. So one of the benefits of sailing is that kind of forces that interaction as adults. Same thing. We do social sailing on Friday nights during the summer. We invite people to come down and get on a boat with people they've never met before. What a great thing to do on a Friday night, you know, go meet some new people and enjoy Casco Bay on those beautiful summer evenings and learn to sail. If you don't know how, learn to sail. And if you do know how, show someone else. So I think it's really a nice way for people to unplug. And as Jess said, there's nothing like that. Feeling of being out there with just no motor, just wind, water, salt air, wildlife. It's. There's nothing like it. And one other thing I want to say about sailing in this area, we do offer women's only programs. And I mention that because I think that this is probably a show that's listened to by a lot of women out there. And I, as a young woman sailing, I purchased my first boat by myself as a single woman. And that was one of the most proud days of my life. And I think that for a lot of women, sailing is an outlet and an activity that they can do and that they can learn that they can take a lot of pride in. And the fact that you don't need to have a male counterpart to sail or to take a boat out or to own a boat or to go sailing around the world. So I encourage any women out there who would like to sail. Don't let the fact that it seems like kind of a big physical sport stop you from coming and learning, because it's not. And we do everything we can at Sail Main to make it comfortable and easy to learn in a women's only group.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How do people find out about Sailmain?

Jess McGreehan:

Well, there's a few different ways. We have a website and you can visit that website. It's sailmain.org and also we have a Facebook page in which people can check us out there where we're updating that page, putting pictures of what our volunteers are doing, what our youth groups are doing, what the adult sailors are doing.

Janet Acker:

We're happy to put anybody on the mailing list. And if you're on our mailing list, then we send out information about volunteer opportunities, about events, about fun things that we're doing down at Sail Main. And we always encourage people just to come on by, come knock on the door, walk in the office, you know, ask us what we're doing down there and we can provide lots of opportunities to get involved.

Jess McGreehan:

Yeah, I'd say majority of the folks that I've introduced to Salemaine have been just walking along the bike path, walk path there and they've come down and said, hey, what's this all about? And I've handed them a brochure and said, I'm so glad you caught me right now I'm about to go out on the water. So the other thing is, if we aren't there, it probably means that we're sailing, but we want you to come back, so please try us again.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I encourage people who are listening, women or maybe high school students or younger students or families. Anyone who's interested in sailing. To look at your website, go to your Facebook page. Learn more about Sail Maine We've been speaking with Janet acker and Jess McGregoon of Sail Maine. Thanks so much for coming in and talking to us about sailing. I'm inspired. Great.

Janet Acker:

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marcie Booth from Booth Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcy

Janet Acker:

when asked, most of my clients say the same thing about what keeps them up at night. Money making. Certain cash flow is there to meet day to day operational needs. Oh my gosh, is payroll going to be able to make it? When we dig deeper, we understand that those sleepless nights are symptoms of poor planning and forecasting. And more often than not, the reasons for not doing it are a lack of time and a lack of resources. So here's a suggestion. Instead of living in fear of the numbers and losing sleep over them, make peace with them by paying closer attention to the financials and creating positive cash flow. I'm Marci Booth.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Let's talk about the changes you need.

Janet Acker:

Boothmaine.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

One of the things that I enjoy learning about are new and innovative programs that bring people to the waters, the waterways of Maine. And the Landing School is one of these innovative programs that today we have with us Matt Barton. Matt is a former student at the Landing School in Arundel and now works as an engineer at the Hinkley Company. Thanks for coming in and talking to us today.

Matt Barton:

Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So Matt, let's back up and get a little bit of information on you and how it is that you came to be at the Landing School. You're from Cape Elizabeth originally.

Matt Barton:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you graduated from that school, Cape Elizabeth High School. And then what direction did your life take?

Matt Barton:

Well, after in high school, I sort of, I never really, to be honest, thought of going to the Landing School or doing anything of that nature. I always, you know, grew up on the water around here and I always thought I wanted to work in the marine, the boat industry because I had a, you know, passion for that. But I wasn't sure how to do that. I guess going through high school I always thought I was supposed to go away and get the four year degree in economics and that's sort of the path I took. So I went, I studied economics and when I came back I landed in Boston and worked at a financial company for about two or three years before I sort of. I realized that I wasn't overly happy doing that and wanted to do something else. So I actually happened upon a brochure for the design program at the Landing School and decided that I should apply and that's how I ended up there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about the Landing School because I don't think everybody is familiar with that.

Matt Barton:

The Landed School is a small school in Arundel, Maine. It has several different programs. It has a yacht design program which is the program I attended and graduated from. It also has a marine systems program, a composites program, as well as a couple boat building programs. They're all one year courses. I think you can now choose to do multiple years and actually get a bachelor's degree out of it is my understanding. But when I attended it was sort of a one year program and that's sort of what intrigued me the most about it was I already spent a lot of money and been to school for four years and couldn't spend another four going to, going, you know, back to get a degree in marine engineering or something. So I, you know, this one year program really interested me. It's sort of a one year or ten month intensive boat design program that encompasses everything from, you know, structural engineering to design and aesthetics and really opens a lot of doors and prepares its graduates to enter the marine industry. For me it sort of opened the doors and luckily enough landed a job at the Hinckley Company which was, growing up in Maine, was a company I was always quite interested in and excited to work there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now when you were a student at Cape Elizabeth, did you do any sort of water related activities as sports or were you encouraged in any way to do things that had anything to do with boats or the water?

Matt Barton:

Not particularly. I guess I did see Cape High School has a. I'm not sure if they still do, but they did at the time had a, as part of the, the carpentry department. They had actually a boat building class where you could take for, I think it was a full year rather than just just a semester. And you know, there were just a few students in and you could build a kayak or a canoe. And I built a Rangeley boat. I think it was my junior year and you know, so that was sort of I learned a lot of the, you know, a lot of boat building skills doing that. But I, you know, basic carpentry skills. But I always had this passion for the water. You know, I grew up sailing in Casco Bay on boats with my family and just always spent a lot of time at the, you know, the beach surfing or on the water in the summers. But in school that was sort of the, I guess the one, the one course that sort of led me in the direction of boat building.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think that there is something that maybe I don't want to say is lacking, but in the educational system right now? Do you think that there's a hands on aspect that people are craving?

Matt Barton:

I think so. I think there's probably a lack of emphasis on the trades now in school. I think students almost frown upon the technical schools in my opinion. You know, when I, the technical schools and the, and the trades and you know, opt more for the, you know, whether you're studying politics or economics or the arts and you know, things of that sort, business things of that sort. Whereas for me I went and studied economics. But what really, what really came back to was the hands on sort of the, the engineering and the sort of the technical side of things which wasn't, you know, I don't think there were, you know, maybe I just didn't steer in that direction, but I don't think there were as many opportunities in that area for me growing up.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And as you're doing design and the work that you're doing now, you actually have to utilize lots of different parts of your brain. Definitely very hands on, but there's a lot of math involved, there's a lot of creativity.

Matt Barton:

I spend a lot of my day, you know, I kind of, I love the position I'm at at work because I sit in this office that has a big window open to the shop floor and I spend a lot of my day on the shop floor and spend a lot of my day behind the desk working in, you know, computer aided design programs as well as, you know, sketching on paper and doing calculations with the calculator. There's a, you know, there's all aspects to it. You know, there's the engineering aspect and then there's also the, the, the, the shop floor aspect of it. Nothing's more rewarding than being able to draw a design on your desk, issue a shop floor drawing and then being responsible for that drawing on the floor, knowing that the carpenter, the mechanic that's assembling that part is going to come knocking on your door. If you made any mistakes, I find that really very rewarding.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you have a chance to see what happens once the things that you've helped build are born, where they go?

Matt Barton:

Absolutely. Again, that's sort of one of the neat things about working at the production plant for Hinkley and Trenton, Maine is we are where the designs come into the door and we do a lot of the production engineering. We do it all in house. And then we see the boats literally be built outside that window in the shop in Trenton. We say they come in as a drum of resin and a pallet of lumber and they leave. Million dollar yachts and we get to go. We put the boats through their paces. If it's a new design, we go. We do extensive sea trials on the boats locally in the water at our service yard in Southwest harbor. And then the boats come out and they're final assembled for delivery to the owner.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've been to Hinkley in Southwest harbor and I've talked to some of the people who have Hinkley boats. I guess I want to call them vessels. That sounds very grand, but it seems like such a happy group. You know, people seem to really like their boats.

Matt Barton:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is that another one of the benefits of working in this industry?

Matt Barton:

I think so. You're absolutely right about that. You know, the owners of these boats are very proud to be Hinkley owners and they're always happy with their boats. You know, I'd say 95% of the people come and visit the actual, the production facility while their boats and build. And there's, you know, the pride on their face when they, you know, they walk around the shop floor just, you know, it's grinning ear to ear just seeing their new boat taking place. And, you know, there's all levels of involvement. We have some owners that, you know, may visit once and check in and, you know, more or less just, you know, want the finished product. And then we have some owners that will come for a week at a time and literally, you know, pull up a chair on the shop floor and just watch their boat go together. And, you know, whatever the case is, the owners are very proud. And just like the owners, I find it amazing how proud the craftspeople at Hinkley are. You know, it's sort of, it's a name that people are proud of and the employees of the company are, you know, their commitment to the boats is amazing and their, you know, their skill. We have some, you know, 35 year veteran carpenters that have, you know, built, you know, hinckley upon Hinckley. And they treat each one like it's their first and they're really amazing boats to see go together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So if I was someone looking for a boat, what would the benefit to me be of being involved in the process, you know, working with Hinckley to create a boat that was uniquely mine or uniquely my family's?

Matt Barton:

Well, Hinkley's kind of a. I find us to be a little bit of a unique company. We're not, you know, some people would consider us a full on production boat builder. Others would consider us sort of a semi custom boat builder. I think we're more, I think we fall more in the semi custom area because we have a number of designs. You know, we don't build a custom boat from scratch. Typically we have a number of designs that are, you know, this is the boat that an owner purchases. But what Hinkley offers is the ability for that person to, you know, to come in and work with a project manager at the company and to come to the plant and, you know, basically get, you know, test drive other boats and walk through other boats and sort of see, you know, I want to customize this piece. I'd like to, you know, Hinkley's known for its, you know, it's sort of its trademark teak and cherry carpentry work. And you know, people may come in and say that's good, but I want to, you know, I want to add teak here. I want to add a teak weather deck to my boat. I want to add, you know, cherry on, you know, in this area of the boat. And Hinckley offers that. We offer the ability for someone to come in and, you know, buy this very, you know, well designed boat that, you know, is sort of a production boat, but come in and customize that. And that's what really makes us a what I believe to be a semi custom boat builder.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think there's something special about boats that come out of Maine?

Matt Barton:

I think so. You know, Maine has a rich boat building history and Hinckley's always been rooted, rooted in Maine. Started in Southwest harbor. And I think you'd have a hard time finding the talent, crafts people that outside of Maine, you know, not just because some of these people have experience building many Hinckleys, but, but because it's sort of a, you know, there's a rich history of boat building in general in Maine. And you know, you have, you have generations of, of boat builders that, you know, that's, that's what's in their blood, it's in the family. And I think that's sort of a unique thing about Main and, you know, special about Hinckley as far as the

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Landing School is concerned. How is it determined that? And maybe you can answer this, maybe you can't, but how is it determined that there was a need, you know, who came along and said, okay, it looks like there's a gap. We want to bring out a new generation of individuals who can help in this trade with this very specific and very important craft.

Matt Barton:

I can't say I know the history of the Landing School probably as much as I should. After I attended their year, I spent more time studying boats than studying the school, I guess. But it certainly does meet a real need. I have to believe it was created to, you know, to meet that need for those people. And I think we need more schools like the Lanyard School. To be honest. You know, Hinckley's at a funny spot where we're sort of, you know, we have a lot of these 35 year veteran carpenters and mechanics at the company. And we're don't want to say we struggle to find new young talent because there's definitely some out there and we have a lot of it. But we try to recruit students out of the Landing School because they're well prepared for this industry. They have a passion for this industry. And I think the state would be well served to have another school like the Landing School. I think there's a definite need for it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When you were at the Landing School, where did the other students come from? What were their backgrounds and what kind of caused them to decide to go in this direction?

Matt Barton:

Yeah, I think what caused everybody to go in that. What sort of drives everybody in that direction is their passion for boats and boat building and engineering and design. As far as where the people came from, it was a real variety. You'd have. I'm just thinking in my program we had, you know, we had some international students that were, you know, some had worked in, you know, owned an international business and were maybe in the position to spend a year at the Landing School. We had other students that were out of high school. This was sort of their first

Jess McGreehan:

bit

Matt Barton:

of education beyond high school. We had other students like myself that had been to, you know, a four year college and had a degree and sort of had a change of, change of heart and decided they wanted to go back for that reason. But what really brought everybody together was that their passion for boat design and boats in general, was there a pivotal

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

moment that Enabled you to see that your life really wasn't going in the direction that felt the best for you and you needed to just kind of step out of that track.

Matt Barton:

I don't think there was a pivotal moment per se. You know, I found myself, I was in Boston and I loved living down there. I had a lot of friends down there, a lot of my friends, a lot of friends from the Portland area end up in Boston. So, you know, there was a lot going on down there. It was a lot of fun. But I found myself sort of escaping the city every weekend. So I, you know, in the winter it was, you know, driving to Vermont to ski and in the summer it was driving to Portland to spend on the water. I felt like I was living in a city to work and leaving to enjoy myself. And that was when I, you know, I wasn't, I certainly wasn't unhappy by any means, but it was, it was sort of, that when I realized that was, wow, maybe I should, you know, think about doing something else and sort of, you know, following my, my passion more.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And did you ever get any feedback from anyone who said, well, you have a four year degree in economics, you're doing finance, you know, this is what you're supposed to be. Maybe you're wasting this if you go do something else.

Matt Barton:

No, I don't think so. I think, you know, my family definitely encouraged it. Everybody, you know, definitely said, hey, you know, realize you have, you know, you still have this economics degree. But, but I think that was, you know, I think I was almost encouraged because of that, that I always, and I knew that I was always sort of would have that to come back to. And this being sort of a, you know, the Landing School being a one year program, it, it gives you, you know, it's, it's, you know, you're making this huge commitment of a year, but it's not a, you know, it's not a four year commitment and you're, you know, you may be giving up things for 10 months, but you know, a lot of people, you know, encouraged me because, and I knew I always would have that to fall back on. At the same time, people definitely, they were the people that sort of discouraged at the time, you know, this was 2009, when the, you know, the leisure industry in general wasn't exactly booming. And there were people saying, you know, you're crazy, you'll never get a job in boat building out of this. And you know, those people are out there. But I, I got a job at, you know, a company that I That I really. I like and I'm proud to work for. And I started two days after I graduated school, so I couldn't be happier.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you still get out on the water?

Matt Barton:

Absolutely. All the time? You know, probably not as much as I'd like to, because I like to get out every day. But my wife and I have a small boat that we keep local and we get out on evenings and weekends during the summer. And I'm fortunate enough to get out on. When we launch new designs. There's quite a bit of engineering and sea trial that takes place on a new design. So I certainly get to be part of that, and that's very rewarding.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are some of your favorite places to bring your boat?

Matt Barton:

Some sounds. Definitely a favorite, sort of a local spot. We actually keep our boat in some sound, so we'll make the run up and down some sound and maybe anchor up and have a picnic in Valley Cove. In the Sound, there is a beautiful area as well as just cruising around Southwest harbor and the Cranberry Islands and that area just in the bay there. It's just a beautiful area for boating.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Matt, how do people find out about the Hinckley Company or the Landing School?

Matt Barton:

See, the Landing School could certainly, you know, I think they always try to attend the local, you know, the boat shows and that sort of thing and have a. Have a booth and offer. Offer their, you know, information on their programs there. I think people should be encouraged to. To contact the Landing School directly if they're interested in any of. Any of their programs. They have a fantastic staff. It is a small school school, and they're more than willing to speak with you about their programs or put you in touch with a graduate like myself. There have been more than one instance where I've been contacted by the school to speak with a prospective student and sort of encourage them one way or the other and just sort of speak about the program and what it's offered to me. The Hinckley Company has. We're local in Southwest harbor and the production plant in Trenton, Maine, and encourage people to, you know, stop by and just, you know, look at the facility in Southwest Harbor. And it's a beautiful spot, if you're ever in the area, to just swing through the yard there and take a look at the operations and what's going on. It's a. It's a busy boat yard and it's neat to see.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, Matt, thanks so much for coming down and making the drive. Obviously from Southwest harbor in Trenton. We've been speaking with Matt Barton. He. He is a former student at the Laning School in Arundel and now works as an engineer at the Hinkley Company. Congratulations on living the dream.

Matt Barton:

Thank you. Thanks again for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

as a special gift to our Dr. Lisa Radio Hour friends, today we listen in on our conversation with next week's guests, Ted Carter and Ellen Gunter, co authors of the inspirational and newly updated book Earth Calling. We hope you enjoy this.

[Unidentified voice]:

You know, at the perfect moment when the worms should be available for the birds to eat for their offsp. Everything like that. The seasons are all screwed up so you can't really get to those. It's off sync so that you can't, they can't be nourished in time to feed their young. So we're having die offs in animal populations and bird populations that are just part of an imbalance that we have set forth in nature. And what we're doing to nature is not natural. This is not natural. It's very unnatural. And what we're doing as human beings, as earthlings is also equally as unnatural. It's not natural to be this way. But I think greed and a lot of self interest drives this and we have to keep that in check. And we have to sort of bring ourselves home and say, call ourselves home and say what are we doing here? I mean, are we all gonna let this beautiful ecosystem fall into this great abyss or are we gonna, are we gonna really do something about it? And I just can't, I just can't sit back and not do anything anymore. I just can't do it I know

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

that as somebody who has really wanted to do good things in life, it has been overwhelming for me at times. And I know for people around me to see that you, you know, you've no sooner dealt with Hurricane Katrina than you have another natural disaster over here. And, you know, I read the Barbara Kingsolver book about the monarch butterflies, and then it actually comes to be so. And you feel as much as you're composting and trying to walk instead of drive and, you know, doing your thing and not eating as much meat and, you know, not using as much water, it still feels so overwhelming. So how do you reconnect with what keeps you moving forward in a purposeful and mindful way?

[Unidentified voice]:

Lisa, you are a spark, okay? Think of yourself as a spark to ignite the passion in other people, because your actions, they may seem very inconsequential, but you influence other people. And you're in a place to influence people, other people through your radio station, through everything that you do. So just remember that we're like, you throw the pebble in the water and it ripples and you're touching a million other people. And especially people. Look, the poor and disenfranchised aren't going to be able to do anything. They're too busy surviving. It's the people like us that are really connected and that are running in this economy that can really do something. You know, we have the resource, we have the influence, and we should be taking this and stewarding this great opportunity that we have and this great blessing we have in a way that really sparks something in others, right?

[Unidentified voice]:

And you know, what you're talking about is network, you know, I mean, this radio station, this broadcast reaching out is. Is networking, as Ted said. You know, you influence one person and you don't know where that goes because it doesn't just happen now. It doesn't just influence somebody now. That happens into perpetuity. This broadcast will be affecting people for a thousand years if we're still around, just because of the nature of influence and because how memory works with our species and the collective unconscious and a whole bunch of other things. But to get to the first part of your question, yes, everybody, it's frustrating. What can I do? What can I do? How can I act? And that's really what the action piece is about, because everybody's different. However many people are listening to this, every one of you has a different calling. And so, yes, we designed the book so that you could figure that out first. You reconnect, you resensitize, Yourself to nature and. But then join a network, get involved with other people. That's where that alchemy of action comes in. That's where it generates and it is completely out of control. I've seen this time and again. I'm a big activist with the Keystone XL pipeline and that started out with 1253 people getting arrested over a period of two weeks and now it reignited the environmental movement. There's no way it's blood over into the fracking movement. It's all over the world now. So that was, you know, you never know how your, what your one action is going to do in the long term. So get into a network, join one of these organizations. The infrastructures are all set up already and then that's that alchemy that begins.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You quoted as you're talking about stepping into your soul's journey. Teilhard de Chardin. It would seem that our time is calling us to awaken from our benumbed and bewitched state to a wonder at and reverence for the astonishing, miraculous and mysterious creation of which we are a part. And I think this is important. I think that first we have to start with that wonderment. We have to start with that reconnection to get out there and really feel this in some way so that it's not just something that we're dealing with on an intellectual level.

[Unidentified voice]:

Right, exactly. It's that heart connection. We get it cognitively, we can get it intuitively. And you know, that compassionate heart is what is awakened when you're in nature. When I like to tell people go out and sit outside, nobody goes to Times Square to relax. They go out into nature. And your state is emblematic of that. You are the one, you are a magnet for this. So people are drawn here because it's so beautiful, it's so peaceful. It regenerates people, it heals them. This is, you know, it's just an amazing place to be. So go sit outside and just take some deep breaths. And when you sigh, that's when your cognitive side is giving way to your, you know, to your intuitive side. That genius of that is innate in us. So, you know, Matthew Fox says he's a modern day mystic and he says we are starved for awe. We are starved for it. We want to be blown away by something besides video games and you know, FX on movies. We want to see what's really there. That's part of our connection. That's what nature gives us. Nature is built in awe.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 151Sailing Maine. Our guests have included Janet Acker, Jess McGregon and Matt Barton. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit Dr. Lisa.org Read our On the Radio Q and A with Matt Barton in the August issue of maine magazine. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E. Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. Get Twitter updates by following me as Dr. Lisa and see my daily running photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Sailing Maine show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.

[Unidentified voice]:

It.