Laurie McGowan and Sketchbook

摘要

When he was growing up, Laurie McGowan was fasci-nated with boats, and pored over the works of British designers available at his local library in London, Ontario. He was born in Quebec, but the family moved to California and then Ontario, following his father's work as a physicist. He learned to sail in a Mirror Dinghy, a kit boat his mother built.After graduating from Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology, a yacht design school, at age 22, he made a living sailing, working as a finish carpenter, and diving for sea urchins in the Bay of Fundy before hanging out his shingle as McGowan Marine Design in Mochelle, Nova Scotia, in 2001.He spent his first five years of practice designing commercial fiberglass fishing boats. Then, in 2006, he was commissioned to design the 27'solar-electric ketch CZARINA. Now, he estimates that his work is about half wood and half fiberglass.