PRESENTERS
The Weaver's Croft is pleased to introduce the presenters for the July 2026 Sail Making Study Group Conference
BY HAND
Marc Shiner
Mark is Curriculum Leader for Maritime Studies at UHI Orkney and has been at the department since its near closure in 2011.
Mark's background is in Yachting, Community Project Development and he is a Sailmaker. He is a qualified RYA instructor for Advanced Powerboat, Shorebased Navigation (Yachtmaster) and VHF. He also holds a commercially endorsed Advanced Powerboat Skippers ticket.
Mark also teaches several STCW courses, Traditional Sailmaking, Schools courses and Hydrogen Crew courses. He also writes textbooks on health and social care policy and law.
Mark enjoys playing music, maritime ropework/sailmaking, classic motorbikes and making clothes when time permits!
In 2022 Grant Gambell sold Gambell and Hunter to his apprentice, Jenny Baxter. Just as those before her, she had been drawn in by the area's inspiring fleet of traditional tall ships. Before sailmaker, Jenny wore the monikers of music student, mountain hermit, and "schooner bum". Though she found sailing later than some, she took to it quickly, especially the arts of the marlinspike and sail construction. Jenny started this exploration as a deckhand aboard the Schooner Mary Day, where she met her husband, Steve Swartz.
Together they have since logged over 15,000 nautical miles both as hired professionals and aboard their own cruising boats.
During the colder months, when he isn't out captaining boats, you will often find Steve in and around the loft as our resident rigger and valuable consultant on various projects. time permits!
Jenny Baxter
Marcail Riggs
Marcail Riggs is a sailmaker, blacksmith, artist and lifelong sewist who currently works at The Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. Her training has come in various forms, beginning with sewing lessons from her grandparents in childhood.
She received her BFA from NYU and later became an elementary school teacher following a Master's in Education. She learned blacksmithing from Bill Scheer and sailmaking from Mark Shiner and Jim Mortimer.
She now teaches at the museum and creates items using her craft. In her free time Marcail can usually be found creating projects from fabric or cultivating her gardens.
Mary K. Bercaw Edwards
Mary K. Bercaw Edwards is a sailor and a scholar.
Professor of English and Director of Maritime Studies at the University of Connecticut, she is an internationally known Melville scholar and the author of Sailor Talk: Labor, Utterance, and Meaning in the Works of Melville, Conrad, and London (2021).
A U.S. Coast Guard-licensed captain, she has 58,000 miles at sea, all under sail. She spends her summers setting squaresails aboard Mystic Seaport Museum’s square-rigged ships and works in the Museum’s 1830s sail loft during the off-season on running rigging and sails.
Jim Mortimer
Jim Mortimer is a tall ship sailor, rigger, sailmaker, and teacher. He has worked at Mystic Seaport Museum for 37 years. He received his bachelor's degree from Appalachia State University in North Carolina and served in the armed forces.
He currently focuses on sail-restoration projects and serving as assistant foreman of the waterfront demonstration team. He has been a mentor of new members of the waterfront demonstration team, teaching them how to bend running rigging aloft, stitch and rope sails, and run the 1917 Hercules engine that powers the Museum's hoop shop. He worked as a rigger when the Amistad was being constructed at Mystic Seaport Museum.
Jim is a talented artist who enjoys creating ditty bags, carved projects, scrimshaw, buckets, and knotwork. He has worked as crew at sea aboard the 1841 Charles W. Morgan, the 1936 U.S. Coast Guard barque Eagle, the 1928 barque Picton Castle, the 1877 barque Elissa, the 1813 brig Niagara, the 1932 schooner Brilliant, the 2000 schooner Brilliant, the 2000 schooner Amistad, and the 1967 schooner Mystic Whaler
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Emily Whitted
