Boat bound for Europe
DEXTER — The Pre-Technical (PT) program students and their instructor Steven Hughes and Building Trades (BT) program students and their instructor John Guay at the Tri-County Technical Center along with Boy Scout Troop 61 of Sangerville participated in an Educational Passages project. They built a small sailboat that will be set out to sea from the Maine Maritime Academy’s (MMA) training ship the State of Maine.
Photo courtesy of TCTC
YOUNG MARINERS — Students from the Tri-Country Technical Center and Boy Scout Troop 61 in Sangerville built a small sailboat in the Education Passages project, which will be launched in the hope of having the craft reach Europe. Pictured is front, from left, Scouts G. Kimball, J. Halvorson, J. Armstrong, J. Halvorson, S. Kimball, D. Armstrong, C. Kendall, A. Bagley and Zach Smith (BT). Back, TCTC Director Nicholas Vafiades, BT instructor John Guay, Shawn Emery (BT), Dustin Allen (BT), Cody Andrick (PT), Cody Wilkins (BT) and Pre-Tech Instructor Steve Hughes. Center rear, Assistant Scoutmaster Keith Kendall.
The boat was scheduled to be launched off of Cape Hatteras, N.C. on May 14 — weather permitting. If the weather is bad, the boat will be set to sail off of Puerto Rico. The boat’s voyage will be tracked by GPS to see where it travels. According to Dick Baldwin, director of Educational Passages, both of the launch areas are very good ones and he thinks the boat has about a 50-50 chance of making it to Europe.
Since 2008, over 28 boats have been launched and they know what happened to the vast majority of them. It is a school wide project from grade school through high school including schools of technology. Vocational students produce the boats from naval architect drawings and foreign language students will be talking to students abroad to arrange for their boat’s rescue or recovery. Grade school kids will learn as their boats follow the courses of the early explorers to the new world. This program includes school assemblies and Maine Maritime Academy Day where students deliver their boats to the captain, tour the academy and meet with admissions.