The Washington County Community College administration has suspended the boatbuilding and marine mechanics programs at its Marine Technology Center, better known as the Eastport Boat School.

Citing a lack of resources and a drop in enrollment, WCCC President Bill Cassidy says, “We were dying on the vine; we had no choice but to do what we did.”

Statistics provided by Alice Kirkpatrick, public affairs director for the Maine Community College System, show a steady enrollment decline from 1999 through 2003.

Cassidy emphatically maintains, “This decision is a positive step that will reinvigorate the program.”

Others aren’t so sure.

Susan Swanton, executive director of the Maine Marine Trades Association, thinks the WCCC decision “sends the wrong signal at the wrong time.”

She adds, “You know, it’s ironic; boatbuilding is one of the few industries in Maine that are growing and not dying. With this decision we’ve lost one of our major resources for this industry. This is a big hurt, a rough thing for us to have to deal with.”

Swanton continued, “The biggest hue and cry right now is for marine mechanics. I don’t think the program should have been suspended even if there were only five students enrolled. With the suspension, that’s five fewer people that we’ll have to draw on. Right now, boatbuilder are turning work away because they don’t have enough workers. Let’s face it; were losing a piece of our workforce.”

The MMTA is developing a statewide apprenticeship program, according to Swanton. “Obviously, we’ve factored in Washington County. It sure was convenient to have a community college with an infrastructure already in place. The announcement of the suspension is a blow. Will it mean the apprenticeship program going out of business there? Probably not. But it will sure make it a lot more difficult. It’s certainly not a great way to kick off the program.”

Legendary Southwest Harbor master boatbuilder Ralph Stanley would like to see much more emphasis on apprenticeship if the Boat School is to continue operating. He’s had a long association with the school and boatbuilding students have been known to look up from their work and find Stanley peering over their shoulders and checking their work.

“It would seem to me to be more feasible to get back to the basics and start students learning to how to take care of their tools, a real orientation,” Stanley says. “Then I would make arrangements with boatyards to bring in students in an apprenticeship for, say, three or four months, then move them to another yard for another three or four months, and so on. Have them get some experience on how it’s done in the real world.”

Stanley would also like to see academic courses more focused on boats.

“I went up to Calais to visit an English class,” he says. “And the teacher had them write about capital punishment, for and against. That’s all well and good, but it might have been more useful to write a paper on doing cold molding versus wooden construction. In other words, have the courses in Calais boat-oriented.”

Stanley also sees the Boat School’s troubles in a wider context.

“The attitude of people is different today. They want boats, but they don’t want to see them being built,” he says. “I’m having a hard time holding onto my own place here. They told me I should go up in the woods to build my boats, that I didn’t need to be on such a valuable [shorefront] piece of property.”

Stanley concluded, “I’ll tell you I have a lot of respect for [Boat School chair] Brett Blanchard. He’s done a really good job of holding it together up there.”

For his part Blanchard says about the future, “By law we’re required to teach out the second-year students. I’m fully committed to this program; the school is still here, and I’m working to insure that the program is strengthened and that it continues. I’ve always been in favor of making the school bigger and better, so long as we have the proper resources.”

Then he adds, “We’re the last men standing,” referring to himself and colleague Dean Pike.

Pike wears several hats in Eastport. One of them is as president of Moose Island Marine, a business that includes a retail operation downtown and a boatyard adjacent to the Boat School.

“Moose Island Marine has hired at least one boatbuilding student per year as a full- or part-time employee and sometimes this part-time number grows to three seasonally,” he says. “Our current yard manager is a graduate of the program.”

Pike adds, “We are obviously a small player in the scope of the entire marine industry, but any decrease in the numbers of students attending the program hurts us and our customers. We have had ads in all the major papers on the coast for a marine mechanic with five to ten years’ experience. None are available. The whole industry is crying for qualified marine mechanics that can work on custom watercraft.”

Cassidy says that he’s acutely aware of the importance of boatbuilding to Maine’s history and industry, and he adds, “Our hope and intent is to reengineer the Marine Technology Center, including the Boatbuilding program, into a vibrant learning center – one that supports the current and future needs of the marine industry and attracts more Maine students.”

He adds, “The industry is an important and vital part of Maine’s heritage, and our state’s economy. Supporting the industry will continue to be a priority of this college, and to do so, we must change with the times, and make sure our programs are up-to-date, attractive to students, and economically feasible.”

Cassidy has said repeatedly that WCCC will restore the boatbuilding program in the fall of 2005.

But Ralph Stanley is skeptical.

“Once you lose something; it’s hard to get it back. I’m afraid it may be gone forever.”