I checked it out last night – our own Nat Wilson has his own listing in Wikipedia!

Nat, who joined Rotary earlier this year, had the club’s riveted attention last Thursday when he shared stories and pictures from his almost 50 years of sail-making. It all began, he said, when he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1971 and was stationed in New London, Connecticut, part of the team that maintained the sails on the Coast Guard Academy’s fleet of sailing vessels, everything from one-person racing skiffs to the USCG barque Eagle.

In 1972, Nat was on the Eagle when she took her annual spring cruise to the Gulf of Mexico followed by a summer cruise to northern Europe. His job was to maintain the sails on the Coast Guard training ship. It turned out to be a remarkable voyage – highlights include a near-record-time crossing to Europe, backed by strong, steady winds the whole way. After a brief stop in Portsmouth Naval Yard (England), the Eagle sailed for Malmo (Sweden), and then Lubec (West Germany), which had been the ship’s original home port when she was known as Horst Vessel – in fact, this cruise was her first trip back to Germany since the War. The ship went next to Kiel (West Germany) to represent the United States at the 1972 Olympics, and all was celebratory until the terrorist massacre took place in Munich. Within hours, the bunting came down, the Eagle cast off for the Bay of Biscay and Lisbon, and the cadets were flown back stateside.

All-in-all, it was a remarkable summer for the impressionable young man that was Nat Wilson. He realized he had a unique opportunity to learn a trade and set himself up in a business that fascinated him. So after his Coast Guard service, he returned to East Boothbay, opened his own sail loft, and went into business as Nat Wilson, Sailmaker.

When he first started in the business, he said, most journeymen sailmakers learned from a master and sail lofts tended to be individually owned and operated. But within a few years, big names started buying up smaller shops and centralization replaced customization. Offshore labor – especially in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and South Africa – and mechanization replaced the exacting work that Nat wanted to do. “I realized I had to do something completely different in order to compete,” he said. And so, Nat turned to what he had learned during his service and became known for the historical accuracy of his sail plans and even the cleats and special fittings demanded by history.

Nat’s work on any vessel begins with blueprints and research into the original sail plans. In addition to Eagle, Nat has created sails for the USS Constitution, Charles W. Morgan, Mayflower II, Pride of Baltimore, Lettie G. Howard, “amongst thousands of other vessels of various sizes and shapes,” according to Wikipedia.

Along the way, Nat was instrumental in inventing Oceanus, a synthetic cloth that has half the weight and twice the strength of traditional cotton. It also weighs the same whether wet or dry. Constitution was the first ship to have her sails made of this material, Nat said.

One of the photos Nat showed of his sail loft featured our own Irene Fowle, who, we learned, worked there before she went to nursing school. Irene worked on the sails for Mayflower II, among other vessels. Who knew?

And, since Nat is too modest to say it himself, I will quote from Wikipedia to share with you that Nat Wilson “is a local legend in Maine and is known worldwide for his expansive knowledge of sailmaking and rigging, both for traditional and modern vessels.”

Nat brought his own cheering section to the meeting – he was accompanied by his wife Rhonda and sister Jan, and Rotary husbands Doug Fowle and Andy Mutch were also drawn by his presentation. Other return guests included Pauline Dion and Bruce Harris. We were also joined by Bob Jacobson’s nephew Brett Hedberg, and by Chip Griffin’s friend Allen Miller. Welcome all!

Earlier in the evening, the meeting started off with Linda Clapp’s inspirational moment which was a quote from Kurt Vonnegut that she found in the Rotarian magazine – good reading, that!

Judy deGraw announced that next week we will have a Yankee Swap and Ugly Sweater Contest. Participation in both are optional, she stressed, but everyone who wants to be in the Swap must bring a gift – wrapped – with a value no more than $10 to $15. Also, this will be an old-fashioned pot-luck; please bring an appetizer or dessert to share.

We will have no meeting on Dec. 26, but we will be responsible for the Community Lunch held at St Columba’s that day. Irene requested sign-ups for soup, bread and desserts, as well as set-up and take down. Please talk to Irene if you can volunteer.

The Community Center is collecting winter coats for immigrants in Portland. See Shawn Lewin or drop them off at the Center. Shawn also took quantities of mattresses from Cap’n Fish down to Portland to be distributed to immigrants.

Other happy dollars had to do with Doug Harley’s 39th (!) birthday; Rick Elder’s last tuition payment (!); and Shawn, for giving the club a new clock that is an improvement over the old and for everything else Shawn does for the community.

We will have a visioning session in late April/early May. This is a continuation of our long-range planning process – and is a fun, thought-provoking evening, as well. Stay tuned! In the meantime, think holiday thoughts and stay out of the eggnog.

Interested in learning more about the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club and everything we do? Talk to a current member or visit us on Thursday evenings at the Rotary Clubhouse on Montgomery Road – but note that we will be dark the week of Christmas and New Year’s.