By Dominik Lobkowicz
The Harvey Gamage approaches the dock at Gamage Shipyard in South Bristol, its birthplace, in 2011. The schooner, most recently owned by
the now-defunct Ocean Classroom, may set sail with students again next year. (J.W. Oliver photo, LCN file)
Damariscotta-based Ocean Classroom ceased operations in August, but the experiential education organization’s three schooners have found new owners and a new nonprofit
may continue Ocean Classroom’s style of programming under a new business model.
The nonprofit Ocean Classroom was founded in 1996 and provided accredited educational programs on its vessels, teaching not only seamanship but subjects
like mathematics, literature, history, and so on.
Greg Belanger, who served as Ocean Classroom’s executive director from 2012 until August, said the recent recession affected enrollment in the entire
industry of semester-at-sea programs and the drop happened to coincide with major capital work on two of Ocean Classroom’s three ships.
The economy also affected philanthropic support of the program, Belanger said.
“In short you have a perfect storm of a decline in donor contributions, a decline in tuitions, and at the same time, an increase in the need for capital
expenditures,” he said.
In addition to debt the organization had already taken on, the schooners Westward and Spirit of Massachusetts needed in excess of $1 million
worth of work to become operational, Belanger said.
Westward had been out of service for more than four years, and Spirit went out of service in 2013.
Ocean Classroom did charter vessels to increase income from tuition, but it was not a sustainable business model to charter vessels while paying for repairs
to two vessels that were not operational, Belanger said.
“We tried to negotiate a restructuring of [Ocean Classroom’s] debt, and were unable to without ceasing operations,” he said.
Ocean Classroom worked with the mortgage holder, Camden National Bank, to settle the debt by selling all three vessels.
Spirit was purchased by a private businessman in southern Maine who aims to use it as an “attraction” vessel – one not U.S. Coast Guard certified to take
passengers to sea, Belanger said.
Both Westward and Harvey Gamage, however, may still have a future in experiential education.
The Harvey Gamage was one of the last schooners built by renowned South Bristol shipbuilder Harvey Gamage. The ship was built in 1973 and was
purchased in 1993 by what became Ocean Classroom, according to Ocean Classroom’s website.
Westward and Harvey Gamage were sold to a subsidiary of a shipyard, Belanger said, which would maintain the vessels and charter them to other
organizations for a fee.
This model, while yet untried, would allow a nonprofit organization to charter the ships it needs, allowing it to focus on recruitment, ecologically-sound
programming, and developing crew while separating it from the ships’ capital concerns, Belanger said.
Margo Maller, who served briefly as Ocean Classroom’s program director before the shut down, is working as the leader of a team designing a new nonprofit
based on that model, which would run programs very similar to Ocean Classroom’s.
“Yes, there is a new organization that has been working for the last several months, trying to really see if we can have an organization and some financial
support underneath the mission, and it appears that we can,” Maller confirmed Oct. 7.
At present the effort is backed by a number of business and community leaders in Portland – some who have extensive background in sailing, some who have
extensive background in nonprofit management, Maller said.
All the details have not yet been hammered out, Maller said. One of the important distinctions, she said, is though the new organization may take on the
name Ocean Classroom again, it will be a completely different organization with no carry-over from the previous board and leadership.
“I’m the only person who, at the moment, has been in both organizations,” Maller said.
Much of the focus during development has been on the organization’s business plan and its viability, Maller said.
“The assumption is that the mission is a solid one, so we haven’t been focused on what programs we’re going to run; the focus is do we have a business plan
that will support the mission,” Maller said.
When Maller came on with Ocean Classroom in May, she started identifying necessary steps to bolster the organization, but was let go along with other
employees in July.
“A lot of these initiatives were things people understood were necessary and for whatever reason couldn’t get to them,” she said.
Carrying on to this point as a volunteer, Maller said her hope is to give Maine programming an emphasis in the new organization, at least for the summer
months.
“It’s a program that I think could benefit many, many more Maine young people,” she said.
The Harvey Gamage will be the first boat operated by the new nonprofit, according to Belanger, and will be heading into a shipyard in the coming
weeks to get hauled out.
“We were confronted with about $100,000 in additional repairs she needed, and that’s all going to be done this winter,” Belanger said.
The group managing the ship itself is very supportive of Ocean Classroom’s mission and want to see its efforts continued, and that group is working have the
vessel ready for use next June, Maller said.
The Harvey Gamage may make another return to the Bristol area next summer, as it did in 2011.
“I would do whatever I could to do that,” Maller said.
According to Belanger, Westward, a steel vessel built in Germany, is capable of doing global passages and may be considered for a different future.
“We’re looking at various proposals that would use [Westward] for more high-latitude sailing like Iceland and northern Europe as well as South
America and maybe beyond,” Belanger said.
The ship needs some expensive work, though, and the new owner will need to sound its hull to see what thin spots – Belanger believes two sections need
replacing – are repaired or replaced, he said.
