Growing up on Lake Sunapee in NH, surrounded by sailboats and racing in the Star Class through young adulthood, I had built my first boat by the age of 10, thereby starting a long love of fine boatbuilding.  Life took me through the years with my young family into the hotel business, ski instructing, and ski shop management. It was in 1978 when I was able to return to my first love, moving to Maine and renewing my interest in boatbuilding with the establishment of East/West Custom Boats.

            I started building wooden boats, as there was a mystique about forming boats from a pile of lumber. My first major project was the Energy 48. She was a 48-foot double-ended cold molded powerboat for father-in-law Arthur Martin, owner of Martin Marine and designer of the Alden Ocean Shell. From there I branched into building wooden oars for the Aldens and producing the 16 foot Appledore Pod also cold molded with western red cedar. (See Gallery)

  Within the often messy business of boat building, East West is impeccably well-organized. By getting involved in the early stages of designing a new boat, I make it possible to deliver a high quality product which is always finished on time and on budget. Through the application of modern technology to facilitate attention to detail in keeping with the New England boat building tradition, I have made East/West Custom Boats into one of the premier small boat producers on the East Coast.

            In the early 80s, I came across the line of Drascombe yawls designed in England and being built in the US in fiberglass. I really believed these fine boats were designed to be built in wood and should be built in wood. I contacted the late John Watkinson, designer in England and was given a license to build the Drascombes in wood. With the boom of the 80s, I built nine Luggers. My license continues for the US today with Stewart Brown of Churchouse Boats in Hampshire, England. He has graciously offered me the building rights to further the interest of these great boats in the US.    

Through the years I became a contract builder for numerous other specialty small boats. I moved into fiberglass boat building being the exclusive builder for Martin Marine and Alden Ocean Shells for a period of twenty years building over ten thousand of their shells.  Also during that period, I became the exclusive builder of Bay of Maine Boat’s line of yacht tenders of Kennebunkport, Maine, Hawaiian outrigger canoes for CanoeSports East and Polynesian Racing Craft, and guide boats for Adirondack Rowing in New York State.

After 25 years of hands on education building recreational rowing shells for Martin Marine and Alden Ocean Shells, I along with my wife, Lorna Martin Perry and brother in law Doug Martin, decided to follow our dreams of designing and manufacturing our own line of recreational rowing shells, thereby starting Echo Rowing. I bring to Echo Rowing an extensive knowledge of creating and producing the highest quality shells, constantly seeking improvements to meet customer needs and to retain the integrity and reputation of East West Custom Boats, Echo Rowing and the others I produce for.