BRISTOL, Maine — Bobby Ives takes basic hand tools, a square, and a bevel to show his small class how to fit the ribs into a small wooden rowboat.
And he makes sure they know it must be done right. The pieces of wood must fit tightly together.
“The bottom line is you have to keep water out of the boat and people in the boat and the boat continuing on, and that’s a strong guideline to live up to,” Ives said.
Then he added a serious piece of information.
“These little boats have saved six people’s lives [over the years] because of different emergency needs, people falling overboard, so you have to build them well because the boat you’re building may have to save a life.”
At the Carpenter’s Boat Shop, some of the lessons extend well beyond woodworking skills. It's been that way since Ives and his late wife Ruth founded the school 43 years ago.
Ives was a young minister then. The couple taught school on Monhegan Island, where Ives pastored the island church, as well as one on the mainland in New Harbor. He also learned to build wooden boats and said he wanted to find a way to help people learn those skills while also helping them find direction and purpose in their lives while learning to care for others.
The Carpenter’s Boat Shop was that tool. They brought in small classes of apprentices who lived together, worked at learning boat-building skills, and did community service work.
He said it was following the guidance of Jesus and his Sermon on the Mount.
“We try to live by that simple guidance: kindness, peace, joy, love, and simple living in that capacity. We try to treat, not so much with words, but live that simple code: peace, joy, love, forgiveness daily in our lives.”
Boat Shop executive director Alicia Witham made clear it's not a religious organization and not exactly a school, either.
“I call us a boat-building program instead of a school,” Witham said.
She said people can come to the Boat Shop and learn how to build boats, but the program is more than that.
“Community living, expedition sailing, personal growth opportunity, we do a tremendous amount of service in our communities," she said.
The apprentices come at no cost. Students live at the Boat Shop for months, sharing responsibilities but not paying for anything.
Weekly classes for adults, like the one Ives was teaching, help pay the bills along with grants, donations, and selling some boats and other wooden items, made by a team of volunteers.
Ives stepped away from the school in 2012 to work at Bowdoin College but has returned as a volunteer. Witham and a small staff and a board of directors run the program.
Still, Ives’ personality, knowledge, and experience remain a magnet for those who come to the Carpenter’s Boat Shop.
“We try to help them to live without fear, love without reserve, and willingly work for the common good of all," he said.
When asked whether that might be a guide for how to live one’s life, Bobby Ives smiled: “I try to reinforce it whenever I can.”