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During their summers growing up on Cape Cod, Brad and Mike Pease spent as many hours on the water as they did squabbling at the dock while cleaning and caring for their grandfather’s Amesbury skiff. While the personalities of Brad “the dreamer” and Mike “the nuts and bolts guy,” have clashed over the years, those early days spent scrubbing the classic lines of the hand-built wooden vessel and then taking time out to enjoy their salt water surroundings sparked a mutual appreciation for the environment that has created an unbreakable bond between them—and nature.
Since 1982 the brothers have successfully owned and operated Pease Boat Works and Marine Railway of Chatham, MA, which specializes in wooden boat building, repair, and a restoration. “The craftsmanship and engineering that goes into making a quality vessel is so attainable when working with wood,” Mike says. It is also an organic renewable resource, an important point given the brothers’ commitment to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a non-profit environmental action group devoted to clean water, clean energy, and preserving wildlife.
As part of their sustainability practice, last year the Pease brothers retrofit the entire boatyard with solar panels to harvest energy. More recently, they extracted the gas motor and fuel tank in a client’s 18 foot Salcombe open launch, called Questing Beast, replacing it with an Elco EP-600 electric motor that “functions beautifully with a battery bank,” Mike says. Now, when Questing Beast pulls up to the dock and the client plugs in to recharge the battery, the boat is getting electricity supplied by solar panels mounted on the roof of the boat house.
“There is no carbon footprint with this boat. It is totally off the grid,” Mike says proudly. “The fact that we can do this is because of what Elco has done. They provided us with an electrical motor package that is virtually plug and play.”
The zero footprint system they built is a huge triumph for these hardworking brothers who are trying to keep Cape Cod’s water as clean as it was when they were kids.
Learn more about Mike and Brad Pease at: http://www.peaseboatworks.com/
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