Greetings Landing School Family and Friends,

So, another year begins… There is always an air of excitement in the school as students arrive for a new academic year. This year was no exception as we welcomed students from around the country and, indeed, around the world for registration day. We began registration day by making sure all the required paperwork was filed, followed by the more fun opportunities of bridge building, model sailboat building, and racing competitions. Once students had settled in to their respective work benches and drawing boards, we ended the day with a cook-out lunch in the Big Boat Shop!

This year’s cohort of students seems genuinely excited to embark on this year of learning and growth and I share that excitement in anticipation of watching their emerging careers in the boating industry.

Finally, I would like to extend an invitation for you to come visit the school this fall, if you are in the area. We are proud of this storied institution and look forward to sharing the experiences of our students with you.

Wooden Boat Building

This year in Wooden Boat Building, there are students coming from a broad range of backgrounds and woodworking experience. During the first week of class, we’ve covered hand tool and power tool basics, and the students are partway through a Landing School classic, building their own toolboxes! By the end of the week, we will be done with basic tool introductions, and will start lofting the Town Class sailboats. After we have our loftings, or full-size drawings completed, we will start building boats!

Marine Systems 

In the first weeks of the Marine Systems Program, the students have already gotten into a fair number of lectures, and have spent time working with their calipers measuring a collection of random items from around the shop. Once they’ve honed their measuring skills they will move on to technical drawing. In the afternoons, to get some hands on tool use and stretch their brains a little, we’ve been making model boats out of sheets of foam, with tiny electric motors, shafts, propellers and 9 volt batteries. They get to work with their hands, and learn about propellers, shafts, shaft couplers, engine alignment, DC electricity, and hydrodynamics all in one fun exercise.

Yacht Design 

The students in our Yacht Design program have already drawn their first boat and presented it to the rest of the class, fielding questions and describing their thinking to their peers. They’ve been introduced to several skills and tools – from using Excel, to scaling, to the concept of the “design spiral.” They’re now embarking on their first project: A 38ft powerboat which they will design for a fictitious client of their own creation.

In 1995, Jim Cumiskey came to The Landing School as a yacht design instructor. Of the many extraneous duties that he was assigned, one was keeping maintenance of the library. At that time the library was an 8 by 6-foot storage room known as the P. WHITIN library.

In the last 20 seven years, the school has grown and so has the library. The Witten Library has been incorporated into the Patience Learning Resource Center which serves The Landing School community by providing clear paths to information and resources, on-site and online.

The current library has seven (7) distinct parts

1. Main Library collection (over 2500 books and growing)

2. Drawing file collection (over 1400 drawings representing over 350 designs from more than 100 designers)

3. Libguides (online catalog at https://libguides.landingschool.edu/) 

4. Magazines/periodicals with a comfortable reading area

5. An archive for a number of older books that we just can't throw away!

6. $1 bookshelf (book sale for those volumes that we are willing to let go)

7. Free/exchange (located in the student lounge)

Faculty Outing

Many thanks to longtime Landing School friend Rich Woodman for taking some faculty and staff members sailing on Schooner Eleanor in Kennebunkport What a great way to kick off another great school year!