As a boy growing up in Vermont, Eric Blake began building wooden boats mainly as a means for fishing. He built wooden canoes and kayaks, but he says he always aspired to build classic, bespoke wooden boats like the kind built at Brooklin Boat Yard. “They were on my radar for a long time,” says Eric when he speaks about his time before working at BBY. “I wanted to build those kinds of boats,” he says, “I wanted to be a project manager one day.” 

Still, Eric took time to follow his wanderlust, as he calls it. He spent his 20’s traveling and apprenticing in Maine, the UK, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Northwest. Once the wanderlust wore off, though, Eric knew where he was headed. He describes the first time he ever drove down Center Harbor Road: “I knew it’s where I wanted to be.”  

By the time Eric landed at BBY, he had led multiple projects. Today, he’s been here seventeen years and has led substantial projects including Aphrodite, Rascal, Foggy, Aroha and Tink.  

When asked what makes BBY so special, he responds with “the setting,” but he also says, “This is one of the last dream shops in North America.” He credits other things like the camaraderie, the diversity of work, and the innovation as being the reason people stick around.  

Eric lives in Brooklin, ME, and has three children. In his spare time as a volunteer, he teaches Boat Building basics to sixth through eighth graders at The Brooklin School.

Eric is a founder of Off Center Harbor and has over ten years’ experience documenting and filmmaking worldwide.