Brooke Ricketts of Centreville, Md. has joined the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels, Md. as a shipwright apprentice. Rickett’s apprenticeship begins with restoration work on the historic skipjack Rosie Parks.
Ricketts experience includes working in the carpentry and corporate management fields. After his apprenticeship, he will be enrolled in a nine-month boatbuilding program at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis, England.
In his youth, Ricketts was introduced to CBMM through his family’s membership, and later learned about the professional shipwright apprentice program through a WoodenBoat magazine article. His family history includes a waterman who dredged oysters aboard a skipjack out of Oriole, MD. Ricketts connections to the Chesapeake Bay go back to sailing her waters as a young child, aboard an Irwin 30 during family vacations.
CBMM’s professional shipwright apprentice program provides on-the-job training in wooden boatbuilding techniques through the restoration and maintenance of the largest collection of Chesapeake Bay watercraft in the world. Many apprentices continue their careers in the boatbuilding or maritime industries, working in commercial shipbuilding or small boatyards around the Chesapeake Bay. Others have become shipwrights on large vessel construction projects or are working in the maritime museum industry.
cbmm.org