PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER MAGAZINE NEWS.

Boatbuilding Industry Mourns Visionary Advocate Carl Cramer

The death of Professional BoatBuilder founder Carl Cramer last week brought a flood of calls and messages from friends and readers around the world to the magazine’s editorial desk. Carl was every boatbuilder’s best friend whether they knew it or not. A passionate sailor and boat owner, a brilliant publisher, and a relentless boating-industry impresario, he founded multiple new business ventures for Maine-based WoodenBoat Publications during his 27-year tenure there—a wood one-design regatta, ahead-of-its-time online training for marine technicians, an online tradeshow, Professional BoatBuilder, and the immensely successful IBEX, which he claims to have started as an excuse to meet some of the designers, builders, and writers who were his heroes.

His admiration for the work of boatbuilding was broad and generous, ranging from the composites shop, paint booth, and rigging loft, to the design office and marketing department. The trade returned his genuine enthusiasm with respect, friendship, and an unending stream of fodder for his new ideas and passions. No surprise then that he owned dozens of boats, from wetsuit-mandatory, trapeze-equipped sailing dinghies and Uffa Fox’s only outboard skiff, to a couple of graceful Herreshoff ketches and a pint-sized Whiticar sportfisherman. And no shock again that he gave many of them away when the next boat idea caught his fancy.

Openminded, openhearted, and always out in front of the fleet is how we’ll remember him. Take a minute to raise a glass (Heineken or Oude Genever) to the enduring enthusiasm and innovation in our industry that Carl inspired.

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Carl Cramer — 1946–2025

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine—Carl Cramer, 78, of South Portland, Maine, died at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough, on April 10, 2025 with his wife Melissa Wood and dog Muttley at his side.

Carl was born on July 14, 1946, in Hollywood, California, to Elizabeth (Norris) and Ambrose C. Cramer. He grew up in Santa Barbara, moving to Maine to attend Bowdoin College in 1964. Excepting protracted adventures in Vietnam, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Nova Scotia, the rest of Carl’s life was centered in Maine around boats and publishing offices.

Early careers included yacht designer, boatyard worker, bookstore owner, and during the record-breaking blizzard of 1978, the last taxi driver taking fares in Portland. In the 1980s he worked for Down East Magazine, and then co-founded computer publications based in the mid-coast.

In 1987, after many years of sending his resume, Carl was hired to work at WoodenBoat magazine where he became publisher in 1989, a position he held until his retirement in 2014. During those decades, the Brooklin-based magazine and its associated school, shows, and other marine publications flourished in no small part because of Carl.

In 1989, he launched the trade journal Professional BoatBuilder magazine followed by the immensely successful International Boatbuilder’s Exhibition and Conference. More pied piper than field marshal in command style, he was often in the background of his own achievements, lavishing credit on the people who brought his ideas to fruition. His work family returned the effort and the affection.

An enthusiastic sailor, Carl was passionate about boats. He delighted in a cockpit full of friends, talk, and sunshine. But Carl’s true expertise was people. He relished talking to strangers and made fast friends despite language and cultural barriers. Carl was also a pathological reader, who consumed multiple books every week, then passed them on to friends with pithy praise or condemnation.
In person, he was a fearless iconoclast and a gentleman. Carl loved to argue morality, literature, and naval architecture, but with a twinkle in his eye and a Heineken in hand. His formal attire was a suit paired with crocs. His manners were gracious. He always stood when a woman entered or retired from the room, and he eschewed trash talk. Carl remained gallant in an age when chivalry was long dead.

Carl often explained to waiters as he ordered an appetizer for dinner, “I’m just a little guy.” And he was. Indifferent to food, he appeared to derive all the nourishment to maintain his modest frame and fast pace from the company he kept. He was light and moved lightly through the world like a feather or a laugh lofted on the wind and gone.

He is survived by his wife; daughters Chloe (Doug Gurley) and Morgan (Eric Babcock); and grandchildren Quincy, Max, Sebastian and Isaac. Carl was predeceased by his siblings Kevin and Jill.
On Carl’s behalf, his family is buying coffee for the nurses at MaineHealth’s Cardio Thoracic ICU. Contact Melissa to contribute. A celebration of Carl’s life will be held in the summer.