Alicia Witham joined The Carpenter’s Boat Shop on the Pemaquid Peninsula as its executive director in May 2021. Since then, Witham has introduced a virtual speaker series, an artist-in-residency program, and will revert to a nine-month apprenticeship program that will teach sailing, starting next March. (LCN file)
After two years experimenting with a shorter four-month apprenticeship term, The Carpenter’s Boat Shop will return next year to its traditional nine-month program, Executive Director Alicia Witham said during an interview on Friday, Oct. 14.
Tucked away on Old County Road in the Bristol village of Pemaquid, The Carpenter’s Boat Shop offers a tuition-free apprenticeship program that provides room and board on the wooded campus in exchange for labor – building boats, helping in meal preparation, and maintaining the facilities.
In addition to reverting to a nine-month semester starting in March 2023, the 43-year-old nonprofit will begin to teach sailing, one of Witham’s lifelong passions.
“We’re going to introduce seamanship and expedition sailing in a real way,” Witham said. “My intent is to really teach the apprentices how to sail, how to navigate, and how to spend time on a boat for multiple days. It builds that camaraderie and care for another human being.”
A Portland native, Witham first found her love of sailing during a semester with the National Outdoor Leadership School in Baja California when she was young.
She then worked at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, a non-profit educational organization and expedition institution, and then at the Olympic Circle Sailing Center in San Francisco, before eventually moving back to Maine.
“I spent a significant amount of my 20s and 30s in sailing education with a focus on team-building, character development, communication, leadership,” Witham said.
Next summer, Witham hopes to take all nine apprentices and two instructors on a five- or 10-day sailing expedition.
“We’re all going to live together on a 30-foot open boat and we’re going to cook and swim and navigate and teach seamanship,” Witham said. “And through living together on that 30-foot boat, and all of the challenges and the joys it presents, it is a remarkable opportunity for transformation and personal growth, which is kind of a cornerstone of The Carpenter’s Boat Shop.”
Witham found the perfect job for her at the Carpenter’s Boat Shop and was hired as executive director in May 2021.
“(The Carpenter’s Boat Shop) allows me to go to work every morning knowing that what I do makes a difference,” Witham said. “All of the things I’ve been passionate about — sailing, education, people, and community, and boats — it’s all under service to others. It’s all under one roof.”
Witham has also been working to expand the type of service apprentices engage in and who they serve, while continuing to work with CHIP Inc. and its furniture swap, which are its “roots,” she said.
Recently, apprentices have helped harvest and weed with Twin Villages Foodbank Farm, participated in island cleanups with the Maine Island Trail Association and Atlantic Challenges, and started an afterschool program in collaboration with Central Lincoln County YMCA last fall that will continue this year. They logged 180 hours of service in September, she said.
“We’re also still nimble enough to respond to the neighbor that needs firewood stacked,” Witham said.
The boat shop started a virtual speaker series in September 2021 that has continued this year and will be offered through the winter.
The main workshop at The Carpenter’s Boat Shop, at 440 Old County Road in Pemaquid. The organization has been holding a virtual speaker series, hosting events like a cider press day, and will begin to offer paid classes and workshops year-round to better engage the community, Executive Director Alicia Witham said. (Evan Houk photo, LCN file)
Some of the featured speakers have been founder Bobby Ives, who discussed the history of Monhegan Island, Bill Mook, owner of Mook Sea Farms, and Heather Leslie, director of the Darling Marine Center.
The boat shop is also looking to have more in-person events to engage the local community, like a cider press day held in early October, where Witham said many young families turned out for the “authentic fun.”
“I want to bring people to this campus, whether it’s virtually or physically, and allow them to be a part of this community that is just magical,” Witham said.
There will also be shorter programs available year-round now, rather than only in the summer. Locals can pay to learn how to craft wooden standup paddleboards, Monhegan skiffs, Japanese river boats, or take a course in bowl-turning.
The Carpenter’s Boat Shop is also engaging the local community with its recently introduced artist in residency program. One artist is accepted to practice their craft while living in the boat shop community for a period of time. Currently, artist Jordan Parks is living there and a pop-up art opening featuring her work is planned prior to Thanksgiving.
Witham is enjoying her time in Lincoln County, she said, and feels lucky to have landed in such a perfect job that fits her interests and skills.
“Whatever season, whatever month it is, it’s downright beautiful,” Witham said of the area. “Living on this peninsula, I have been discovering a whole different part of Maine.”
The Carpenter’s Boat Shop was founded in 1979 by Bobby and Ruth Ives with the seven Benedictine principles in mind: work, worship, study, service, recreation, hospitality, and prayer.
Witham is living these principles and looking to expand The Carpenter’s Boat Shop reach into the future.
The boat shop makes money from selling boats and the paid courses offered, but Witham gave a lion’s share of credit to the community that has supported the shop since its inception.
“Really we are here because of our local and greater community’s ability to donate to us and to support us that way,” Witham said. “We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the generosity of our supporters.”
For a schedule of events and programs or for more information, go to carpentersboatshop.org.
