In 2017, I graduated from The Landing School in Maine, studying wooden boat building and composite construction. Before that, I was at Jarrett Bay learning to build custom sport fishing yachts. These boats get painted with marine paint systems, not gel coated. After school, I continued at Duffie Boatworks right here in Ocean City, finishing out custom sportfish.
That work taught me composite layup, fairing, sanding, buffing, and polishing. Custom sportfish get Awlgrip and urethane paint finishes, which are actually more forgiving to work with than gel coat. Most boats I detail now have gel coat, which is a completely different animal - thinner in places, easier to burn through, more sensitive to technique.
I'm also a USCG licensed captain. Running boats professionally - even aluminum crewboats that nobody takes care of - taught me what happens when maintenance gets neglected. You see the difference between boats that get attention and boats that don't. That perspective shapes how I think about protecting finishes.
When I went through Starke Yacht Care certification, that's where I got my formal training in gel coat correction and ceramic coating. The techniques that work on painted custom boats don't always translate to gel coat. Starke taught me the difference.
That's why I started Catalyst Marine. To bring that builder's perspective to boat care. To treat every finish the way it needs to be treated, not the way a detailer who learned on cars thinks it should be treated.