March 14, 2015 — An attempt to relaunch Ocean Classroom, a nonprofit that ran schooling-at-sea programs until its financial collapse last summer, is expected to be delayed because new backers failed to agree on terms for leasing a ship.
The Ocean Classroom Foundation, which was based in Damariscotta, shut down last summer after officials learned that two of the three ships it owned faced expensive and lengthy overhauls. The organization had fallen behind on a $2.2 million mortgage and would have needed about $1.4 million more to repair two of its ships, the Westward and the Spirit of Massachusetts, and probably another $100,000 for the third ship it owned, the Harvey Gamage.
A group of backers who want to resurrect the programs formed a new company, Ocean Classroom LLC, based in Portland, late last year. But a plan to lease the Harvey Gamage from local businessman Phineas Sprague fell through last week when Sprague and Ocean Classroom could not agree on financial terms. The company’s board, which expects to file papers as a nonprofit, is meeting Saturday to consider its options.
The failed deal with Sprague means the organization has no ship for its sea-based programs. The executive director, Margo Mallar, said she’s exploring options for other ships, which she declined to identify because no lease had been signed.
Ocean Classroom had planned on some land- and sea-based programs this summer, but wasn’t expected to launch its more extensive semester-at-sea trips until next year.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald