Seamanship the Apprenticeshop Way

This is a five-day course ending Friday

Celebrating its 51st year in 2023, and first featured on the cover of WoodenBoat No. 4 in 1975, The Apprenticeshop is a school for traditional wooden boat building and seamanship in Rockland, Maine, with a mission to inspire personal growth through craftsmanship, community, and traditions of the sea. Three of The Apprenticeshop’s core values that will anchor the methodology for this course are: Human Potential, Learning by Doing, and Collective Experience. The Apprenticeshop believes that all people are capable of sailing, whether as an important member of the crew, or at the helm. Students will learn through immersive hands-on experience and experimentation. With a knowledgeable instructor creating a low-pressure and supportive environment, students are given permission to be amateurs and try new things. Over the course of the week students will be introduced to traditional sailing rigs, basic vocabulary, the theory of sailing, piloting basics, and seamanship skills including anchoring, docking, tides, currents, and preparing for weather. With these skills as a foundation, there may be an opportunity to plan a voyage. Learning will take place on an Apprenticeshop-built traditionally rigged 28’ open boat, both seaworthy and weather-capable, that The Apprenticeshop regularly uses for weeklong expeditions in Penobscot Bay. The emphasis here is on teamwork, discovery of one’s own capabilities, and having fun!