Mystic Seaport, USA, has named Jon Wilson and WoodenBoat magazine as the recipient of the ‘America and the Sea Award’ for 2012. The award honors and celebrates those who embrace the scholarship, exploration, adventure, aesthetics, competition, and freedom the sea inspires.

Wilson, the founder of WoodenBoat, will accept the award on Saturday, 27 October, at a gala held in his honor at Mystic Seaport.

The ‘America and the Sea Award’ recognises an individual or organisation whose contributions to the history, arts, business, or sciences of the sea best exemplify the American character. Past recipients include former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman; oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle; historian David McCullough; legendary yacht designer Olin Stephens; president and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, Thomas Crowley; and noted maritime collector and yachtsman William Koch.

“By recognising and unifying a passion for the allure of the design and beauty of wooden boats, Wilson helped transform a nascent renaissance in the early 1970s into a 21st century industry, in the process ushering in a new golden age for wooden boats in America,” says Mystic Seaport President Stephen C. White.

Wilson founded WoodenBoat magazine in September 1974. Jon assembled the magazine in his cabin in North Brooksville, Maine. This was accomplished without electricity or plumbing, and with his telephone nailed to a tree—half a mile down the road. Taking the inaugural issue to the Newport Boat Show, he sold 400 individual copies and signed up 200 subscribers.