The Carpenter’s Boat Shop is an open and affirming intentional community designed around a free 9-month apprenticeship program committed to traditional wooden boatbuilding, seamanship, and service. The Boat Shop was founded in 1979 by Robert and Ruth Ives (a UCC minister and school teacher, respectively) with the goal of creating a community nexus of worship, service and craft. The Boat Shop was initially housed in a converted chicken barn and has since evolved into a gorgeous campus on twenty five acres of land along the Pemaquid River in Maine. For decades, The Carpenter’s Boat Shop has provided a safe harbor for people from around the country who are navigating the seas of transition from a variety of life circumstances, including: from college to career, aimlessness to new directions, prison to society, marriage to single-hood, or work to retirement.

In the end, The Carpenter’s Boat Shop isn’t just about boats; its about extending the care that one takes building boats to oneself and to others. It’s about learning how to be better prepared for one’s life journey.