Two college friends launching international sailing school have been given a boat beyond their wildest dreams.
The 137-foot schooner ROSEWAY, for years part of the commercial Camden windjammer fleet, has been donated outright to Abby Kidder and Dwight Deckelmann, both 31 and former classmates at Principia College. Their Camden-based World Ocean School has yet to receive official nonprofit status, but that didn’t deter officers at First National Bank of Damariscotta. The bank had foreclosed on ROSEWAY’s previous owner, who owed more than $200,000, and the boat had been seized for U.S. Coast Guard violations. The bank tried to sell ROSEWAY, but rejected all bids at an auction. Charlie Wootten, a bank official who lives in Camden, took a personal interest in ROSEWAY and the sailing school idea.
“I went on the ROSEWAY years and years ago as a kid, and it was always this great, sort of majestic ship, and then to have this all of a sudden come back around … every time I get on it, it’s this excitement: It’s just perfect for what we want to do. I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. I think it shifts our focus a lot right now, because it moves from actually carrying out our programming to really focusing on the restoration of the boat.”
Even with a free schooner, Kidder knows she has to raise a great deal of money, both to restore the vessel to get her school under way. “I’ve been in this community for quite a while and I have a feeling that there is support to really bring it back to life. This is a very sea-going community in a lot of ways and we’ve had captains and shipwrights and skippers crawl out of the woodwork now that they know about this.”
Kidder’s father, Rushworth Kidder, was a journalist, and the family moved often before settling in Camden. A graduate of Camden-Rockport High School, Abby Kidder has a master’s degree from College of the Atlantic in environmental education and ethics.
Deckelmann’s background includes majoring in biology, teaching, coaching, boatbuilding and sailing. He is handling ROSEWAY’s restoration arrangements, probably including a haul-out at North End Shipyard in Rockland. Kidder is handling press releases and fund raising. “It’s happening much more quickly than we thought,” she said.
Kidder and Deckelmann have enlisted help with their enterprise. Kidder’s father sits on the World Ocean School board of directors, and his Camden-based Institute for Global Ethics is evident in the new school’s philosophy. Abby Kidder has worked 10 years for her father’s organization, which seeks to promote ethics in corporations and throughout society.
A prospectus on World Ocean School says its goal is to “bring together youth from around the world to promote civic engagement, ethical fitness, global outreach and relationship building.” The program would include expeditions integrating environmental and cultural studies, including marine biology and natural history. The program and would enroll students ages 16-21, from culturally and economically diverse backgrounds. Voyages of 10 to 12 weeks would be considered a full course; shorter sails in the summertime might involve younger children.
Kidder hopes to enroll 16 students, supervised by a staff of seven. She hopes the intimacy of living and working aboard ROSEWAY would model leadership, community building and moral courage.
ROSEWAY will need considerable work before she is seaworthy and capable of meeting Coast Guard requirements. The wooden schooner’s brightwork still shines, and she retains her graceful lines. But Kidder said ballast has to be removed and cabins will be gutted and remodeled.
Built in 1925 by the James shipyard at Essex, Massachusetts, ROSEWAY was first a yacht and much later, a Boston Harbor pilot operating under diesel power. In 1974, ROSEWAY was purchased by windjammer captains Jim Sharp of Camden and Orvil Young of Lincolnville. They sailed her out of Camden for the next 14 years, then sold her to George Sloane, the owner who defaulted on the loan. Sloane sailed ROSEWAY to southern waters in the wintertime, where her oak planking may have deteriorated. ROSEWAY last sailed in the commercial passenger business in the summer of 2000. Sloane’s Atlantic Packet Company failed to make Coast Guard-required repairs, which led U.S. marshals to seize the vessel in the summer of 2001. ROSEWAY was towed to a Rockland dock where she remained until Kidder and Deckelmann put her on a mooring in October. An aft section of ROSEWAY’s rail was heavily damaged by repeated chafing against the Rockland Marine pier.
Kidder predicts that with a little luck and a lot of money, World Ocean School will have a restored ROSEWAY within 18 months.