June 2014 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7. The Schooner BOWDOIN Has Busy Schedule
ROCKLAND/CASTINE – News over the last month regarding the passenger schoo- ners sailing along the coast of Maine has not been good. Two of the mid-coast schooners fell on hard fi nancial times and are now the property of a bank. Several others are for sale and some wonder how the future of this industry looks. One schooner, not in the passenger trade, is BOWDOIN, which is the State of Maine’s vessel and a training vessel at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. She is busily getting ready for another season sailing around the Gulf of Maine with ports of call as far south as Provincetown, on Cape Cod and as far east as Halifax.
As spring arrives work begins as stu- dents start to get the schooner ready for her summer schedule. Off comes the winter cover and the scrapping and sanding begins. During mid-May BOWDOIN was hauled up at Northend Shipyard in Rockland, where she was given a coat of bottom and topside paint.
Eric Jergenson is the captain of BOW- DOIN and he explained, “The plan this summer is to continue the course we are presently in, which is CRT 14. This is an auxiliary sail training course for Maine Maritime Academy. We started on May 6 with 12 students from the Academy and they have been working on the schooner in the shipyard, painting, scrapping and preparing her for the voyage. Now we are looking at our June 1 departure date. Of course that will depend on the weather. We are planning at least to move on board by the fi rst of June. Then we are going to set sail and do a cou- ple of days on Penobscot Bay: drills, safety walk through, boat acclimation, and then we will sail up to the Bra’d’Or Lakes and Cape Breton. We will be returning around the 21st or 22nd
to attend the Boothbay Windjammer Days. “We have a full summer,” continued
Eric. “We are working on an event in East Boothbay as a benefi t for the BOWDOIN. Then we are going from there to Portland for open boat and do some alumni sails. We will be spending the Fourth of July in Provincetown, Mass., where BOWDOIN has a historic connection with MacMillan. They have some events planned around the boat. From there we will work our way to Northeast Harbor for another appearance and reception. After that we will then come back to Castine and do a couple of day sails and then we are off in August to do some trips back and forth to Halifax for another training cruise.”
What about a cruise to the Arctic? “We are always planning another one,” said Eric. “There is a difference between schooners that went to the Arctic and schooners that go to the Arctic. Right now we are working on an extended refi t of the vessel. The ultimate goal is to get her into the best possible condi- tion to go back to the Arctic. She is almost 30 years out of her rebuild last major rebuild. As she ages we are going to have to open her up and start working on her. The fi rst thing that is slated is a deck replacement. Right now we are aiming at the fall of 2015 and we are in the process of actively of fund raising for that. From there we will assess the condition of the vessel and then we will make a plan that will best address any issues we might fi nd. We want her to look great as she gets closer to her 100th
birthday.”
The rebuild done in the 1980s was very extensive, but this one is only repairing areas that could grow into a problem. “This is more of a renewal if you will,” said Eric. “The plan is to keep her sailing in the times that she is not being worked on. It is a little
MMA's schooner BOWDOIN hauled up at Northend Shipyard in Rockland.
more expensive, but to the students at Maine Maritime we are going to continue offering this course.” MMA is the only service academy
offering a traditional sailing program. Eric added, “It is really important. You can argue that it could be done on a vessel like a tug or a supply boat, but with BOWDOIN you really get out on the water. You have to think about the weather, the environment, and by having a relatively small amount of horse- power and lots of variables thrown at you, it can give you a lot more challenges. There is
the heritage, but there is also the team work aspect. Every maritime nation in the world that is worth their salt trains their offi cers on sailing vessels.”
“BOWDOIN in my opinion is not com- plicated vessel,” added Eric. “She is a bald headed knockabout schooner, no topsails, no bowsprit. So what she does for our students is she takes away some of the challenging parts of sailing for those that may not be sailors and makes it obtainable on a two week trip that they can become comfortable with sailing her.
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