Windjammer
a Documentary Film
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Andy Seestedt
Director
Andy Seestedt is a documentary filmmaker who cut his teeth in the high-pressure, low-budget world of nonfiction television. He has written, produced, and shot numerous programs for National Geographic Channel, A&E, Travel Channel, and others.
Windjammer is the realization of a long love affair with boats beginning when he was a hand in the Maine fleet, and later a mate aboard the schooner Spirit of Massachusetts.
Taylor Gentry
Director of Photography
The team:
bringing old boats
to life
Taylor Gentry is a Director of Photography based in New York City. He was born and raised in Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi River and studied film at the University of Iowa. There he discovered his passion for Cinematography while apprenticing for Emmy award winning Director / DP, Scott Duncan.
Taylor has shot documentary-television, music videos, advertising, and two feature length films. Some of his clients include Verizon Wireless, Gatorade, the Biography Channel, WeTV, Speed Television, the Sundance Channel, & The US Green Building Council.
In a quiet corner of coastal Maine, fourteen traditional wooden Tall Ships rest in their slips, phantoms from America’s age of sail. A century of internal combustion has gradually consumed these majestic vessels, and today this working-class enclave is home to the largest remaining fleet in the country. Make no mistake, these are not museum ships; the boats, most of them over 80 years old, still pay the rent doing the very thing for which they were built: sailing.
Now, the owners of one are facing the biggest challenge of their lives. The 1927 schooner J&E Riggin – a National Historic Landmark, and one of only three of her kind remaining – is a family business. Husband and wife captains Jon Finger and Anne Mahle spend half of every year living aboard with their daughters, carrying passengers on weeklong voyages under sail. Though they have meticulously maintained the aging vessel, the Riggin is quickly approaching the end of her life.
Rather than retire the boat, Jon and Annie have decided to undergo a massive top-down rebuild in the winter of 2011, replacing nearly all of the 120-foot vessel’s timbers one by one. They will have to raise a million dollars and a small army of 19th century shipwrights to complete the project in only six months. The Riggin is their only source of income; if she isn’t back in the water and making money by April 1st, the Finger family is sunk.
photo: erik adolphson
Brooke Holland
Producer
Brooke Holland is a photographer based in Rockland, Maine. Her work, encompassing both documentary and fine art, has exhibited in juried shows throughout New England and received awards from the Maine Press Association for photojournalism.
Many summers ago, Brooke worked as a cook aboard one of the schooners in the Maine fleet and has never left. Her respect for the industry and preservation of maritime history has never wained.
© 2010 Andy Seestedt