Bill started sailing at the age of one month on his family’s schooner and has been at home on the sea ever since. He started sailing on his own 32’ schooner, which he inherited from his family, at the age of fifteen. Having his own boat, Bill learned to do his own boat repairs at an early age and built his own punt when he was fourteen.

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At nineteen, Bill apprenticed with a boat builder for eight months until he heard the “call of Bluenose II”. He crewed aboard the Canadian icon for four years. Bill attended the Nova Scotia Nautical Institute and acquired an ON3 (Ocean Navigating) International Ticket for Third Mate on Foreign Going and Home Trade Commercial Vessels. Employed by Western Geophysical, Bill spent four months aboard the Western Viking, a seismic survey ship, working off the Grand Banks and the Labrador Coast. During his time on the Western Viking, he saved his money and in the fall of 1984 purchased his boat shop in Indian Point. The shop had quite a history and had been a part of the Community of Indian Point since the early 1900’s. When Bill aquired the property it required much tender loving care. He has continued to upgrade and improve the shop while maintaining its history and the preservation of the environment and the community in which he works and lives.

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Bill was a member of the St. Mary’s Rowing Club in Halifax where he spent two fall seasons rowing singles and eight man shells. Rain or shine, he loves the sea. For twenty one years, on New Year’s Day, he skippered a 27’ navy whaler in the “Frost Bite Regatta” in Dartmouth. His experience also includes skippering and crewing in Chester Race Week on a Dragon Class Sloop and on an International One Design (IOD), skippering the Avon Spirit a 54’ Topsail schooner, crewing aboard the TVega, a 137’ steel schooner and a 50’ fishing dragger off Georges Bank as well as yacht deliveries from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts. Bill also crews in the Nova Scotia Schooner Races.

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Bill is an avid sailor himself and spends many hours in his spare time on the ocean. He is a member of the Nova Scotia Schooner Association (NSSA), Mahone Islands Conservation Association (MICA) and a member of the Focus Group for the Boatbuilding Training Institution Development Program. He is also certified through the Nova Scotia Department of Education Skills & Learning Apprenticeship Training.