Kathe grew up in in the village of Manset in Southwest Harbor and around boats her whole life. Kathe and younger sister, Kim, grew up in and out of their father’s and grandfather’s boat shops and on the water in various vessels. Sailing lessons and racing at girls’ camps and sailing their family Friendship Sloop, Dictator, was a large part of the summer with friends, as well as fishing on the family Newman 32 with her father and grandfather out at Mount Desert Island Rock. Since the mid-1990s, she has sailed and raced Friendships and Bullseyes and worked with her father at Newman Marine.
While Kathe loves the craftsmanship and quality of the fiberglass hulls her father built, she really believes there is a right boat for everyone and that different boats fit the different preferences and lifestyles of her clients.
“That’s what I like about my business. I don’t just stick with Hinckleys, or any one boat. I have all kinds of different boats.”
Kathe graduated from Mount Desert High School and attended Katharine Gibbs School in Boston. Before eventually returning to MDI, she lived in Washington DC and Boston, working in administration, politics, and banking where she learned about effective communication and running an efficient office.
Kathe’s lifelong love of boats and boating eventually pulled her back to Southwest Harbor in 2000. She worked alongside her father in his brokerage business, getting to know the boats thoroughly through his expertise. When she took over the business in 2016, she was determined to honor both her father’s legacy and bring new innovations into the brokerage.
Kathe is a hands-on broker and does everything from coordinate photo shoots to arrange transport. As a buyer and seller of boats, she enjoys collaborating with her clients and other brokers in making a sale of the right boat to the right customer. In some cases, she’s spent years looking on behalf of her clients for a certain kind of boat and she loves every minute of it!
She and husband, Dan Walton live on Mount Desert Island and have five grown children and 2 granddaughters. They both are USCG Master Captains and enjoy working and recreating on their Friendship Sloop.