If you run into Nat Wilson at the post office, he might tell you he is tired and thinking about retiring. He may be telling you the truth, and then again, maybe he might be just spinning a yarn.

Nat is 75. He has made sails in his East Boothbay loft for years. During that time, the skippers of some of the nation's majestic sailing vessels, including the USS Constitution and the Coast Guard's Eagle, sought him out. Why did these sailing officials visit a little town on the Maine coast to see a little sailmaker?

“I will say that while East Boothbay is a little town, I would never refer to Nat as a little sailmaker, ” said Tom Davis, an official of North Sails, one of the world’s major providers of sails.

"He is a master sailmaker," said Tim Hodgdon, who knows a bit about sailing vessels and has built some of the world's great sailing yachts.

Grant Gambell, another Maine sailmaker, puts it this way: “Nat is indeed a big deal and stands out in a category of sailmakers specializing in ‘traditional’ or ‘classic’ style sails. In an industry which has become reliant on technology for design and manufacturing, Nat has always valued, studied and emulated sailmaking techniques from the past. It’s always been about the handwork. Sailmakers (and sailors) with any interest in the traditional ways can often identify a sail that comes (from) his loft.”

And Wilson helped invent the modern sailcloth, called Oceanus, that replaces the traditional, very heavy canvas that powered the sailing ships we all love.

Like many successful people, Nat backed into his career. Although his family spent summers in Boothbay, he grew up in Jackson, Michigan. In 1968, after graduating from Miami University in Ohio with a degree in graphics and photography, he worked as a deckhand for Capt. Eliot Winslow on one of his tour boats.

“It was during the Vietnam War. I got a draft notice. Eliot told me to drive right down to Portland and enlist in the Coast Guard. And, I did.” At the Coast Guard Academy, in New London, Connecticut, Wilson's graphics degree got him assigned to the public information department. The CG brass loved his work and offered him his choice of assignments. He asked to sail on the Eagle, a 295-foot-long, three-masted tall ship used to train future Coast Guard officers.

On the Eagle, between his sailing duties, he gravitated to the academy loft where they made and maintained the sails for the Service’s 55 sailing vessels, including the Eagle. The loft was run by Vern Vernott, a civilian. Wilson was his helper. It was a good fit. Wilson liked his job so much he purposefully flunked the promotional exams twice so he could stay in the academy's sail loft.

“The Captain asked me what was going on. I told him I liked my job. If I got promoted, I would be reassigned. I wanted to stay. He said ‘OK. I understand,’” said Wilson.

As part of the job, Wilson was able to study sail design, and that included visits to a series of major East Coast sail lofts including the famed Ratsey & Lapthorn facility in New York. After his tour of duty was over, Wilson worked at Mystic Seaport where he had a chance to study the sailing museum's collection of historic sail vessels and sails.

Wanting to set out on his own, Wilson moved to Boothbay and set up a shop on Southport. Later, East Boothbay builder Claude Rice approached him. Rice owned a barn on the banks of the Damariscotta. “Claude didn’t need the barn, but he didn’t want it torn down. He made me an offer." It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“He said he would turn it into a sail loft for me,” said Wilson. “I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, but Claude told me he would hold the mortgage and I could pay him interest until I got on my feet. I couldn’t afford to do it. I couldn’t afford not to do it.”

Are you intrigued with Nat Wilson’s story? Me, too. You can read more about him in the Old Scribbler’s column in next week’s Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper.

Be well.