THE ARQUES SCHOOL AT SWBC
The Spaulding Wooden Boat Center of Sausalito will become the new home of the Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding. An agreement has been reached for the relocation of the Arques School from its current location within the Arques Trust property to the historic Spaulding Boatworks site at the foot of Gate Five Road on the Sausalito waterfront. The decision of the Arques School to relocate to the Spaulding Center coincided with the mutual agreement by the Spaulding Center and the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) of Newport, Rhode Island to cancel their previously announced plans to open a branch of the IYRS School at the Spaulding Center.
The Arques School opened in June of 1996 within the Arques Trust property in the Marinship District of Sausalito. It was founded by Bob Darr, who is currently the Program Director and Head Instructor. With a core apprenticeship program of just six students, it is a small school dedicated to developing craftsmen skilled in the art of building boats in the traditional plank on frame methods. The school owes its existence to an endowment provided by the late Donlon Arques who laid the groundwork for the school prior to his death in 1993.
The Spaulding Wooden Boat Center was founded in 2002 as a living and working museum within the historic Spaulding Boat Works building. Gladys Spaulding, widow of the late Myron Spaulding—yacht designer, boat builder, marine surveyor, sailor, and symphony violinist—left the historic Spaulding Boat Works property in charitable trust with a three-part mission: (1) to preserve and enhance the working boatyard; (2) to restore and return to active use significant, historic wooden sailing vessels; and (3) to create a place where people can gather to use, enjoy, and learn about wooden boats, and educate others about wooden boat building skills, traditions and values.
The Arques relocation is a unique opportunity to bring a Sausalito-based, highly respected and established educational program onto the Spaulding site. The Arques School is one of the most respected wooden boat building schools on the west coast, and with the school's arrival and the ongoing involvement of the Master Mariners Foundation, the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center will become the center of Bay Area wooden boat activity. Wooden boat building is a vital part of Sausalito's history, and we want the Spaulding Center together with the Arques School to support and enhance efforts to revitalize and preserve the historic Sausalito waterfront.
The Arques School plans to begin their first classes at the Spaulding Center in the Fall of 2007.
The Arques School Web site is at Arques School of Traditional
Boatbuilding.
