Meet the Captain

Chad Maguire is the product of a seafaring family. Chad’s father retired a captain after 25 years in the Coast Guard service. Chad’s grandfather sailed on the Schooner Bowdoin in the Arctic during World War II, as did Chad at Maine Maritime Academy in the 90’s. Chad was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia and spent his summers between the south coast of New England and the outer banks of North Carolina, always preferring to be surrounded by the sea. 

During high school, he worked in a ship yard building custom steel and aluminum yachts and would go boating with friends and family, eventually realizing that he wanted to dedicate his career to the fishing industry. Chad is a proud graduate of Maine Maritime Academy where he received a degree in Small Vessel Operations and a 200 ton US Coast Guard License. It was his affection for the Schooner Bowdoin that brought him to Maine Maritime initially and while there, like his grandfather Guy Abbate, he sailed aboard the Bowdoin on a voyage that took him 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle through the fjords of Greenland. Upon graduation in 1995 he traveled throughout the United States and the Caribbean participating in a variety of fisheries including purse seining in Alaska, long lining in North Carolina, and offshore lobstering off the coast of New England. While a deckhand, Chad built his own skiff in between trips offshore and started his first fishing business in 2000.

After becoming an accomplished captain in the offshore gilnet fishery, government regulations changed and he entered the scallop fishery in 2004. His strong desire to succeed as a captain in this new fishery didn’t go unnoticed, and within a few years his drive and persistence landed him a partnership with Danny Cohen, one of the largest fleet owners and seafood producers in the world. Danny was forward thinking and pioneered offshore wind farm energy and strengthened relationships between fishery management and wind farm development. In 2011 Chad bought FV William Lee which cemented his partnership with Danny and his full-time single drag scallop permit. Growing this joint venture to eventually owning 7 boats involved in 5 different fisheries in both state and federal waters, Chad’s fishing career as a captain evolved into boat management. After the passing of Danny in November 2018, Chad and Becca started to work on buying out Danny’s interest from Chad’s first and favorite scalloper, FV William Lee.  We closed on the boat in March 2020, which gave us the opportunity to make our dream of starting Captain’s Finest a reality.