You may not care much for boats, especially those of the steam-powered variety, but we know you’ll dig the story of Charlie Thomae, a 77 year-old Cape Cod resident and seeming lifelong gearhead.

Any man who can claim a career as a tool maker and firefighter, and who also holds a patent on a fire hoze nozzle, qualifies as true blue gearhead material. Rather than hot rods, Thomae has been tinkering with boat engines for his entire life. As documented in a Cape Cod Times news story, Thomae wrenched on his first steam engine at the age of 17, spent time in the Navy working on diesels, and has never stopped.

His current project started like lots of car guy projects, as a $500 budget purchase from Craigslist. According to the story, Thomae’s family encouraged him to stop boating due to his Parkinson’s disease, but quickly realized that having a project was beneficial to him.

Charlie Thomae’s story is both inspirational and difficult. Inspirational in the fact that he’s still at it, doing what he loves after nearly 80 years on the planet, but difficult because of the awful disease that’s making his life hard. We hope we’re as lucky as Charlie when our golden years are upon us. We also hope he gets to sail his boat as soon as possible.