About Islesford Boatworks!

We’re a non-profit community-based boatbuilding program for folks of all ages situated on Little Cranberry Island, Maine. Through our programs, services and events, we strive to accomplish our mission to build opportunity, community, and a future for Maine’s working waterfront.

Read more about us here -> IslesfordBoatworks.org

The Legacy Fund: Blue Duck Expansion & Anchoring Our Future

As Islesford Boatworks celebrates 20 years of building kids with boats, we are launching a generational initiative to strengthen and expand our work across the Cranberry Isles.

The Legacy Fund ensures that our next 20 years are even more impactful than the first, for the islands, for our young people, and for the wide community our work continues to reach.

Our goal of $102,000 is intentional. It honors Arthur “Chummy” Spurling, the last full-time boatbuilder of the Cranberry Isles, who lived to the remarkable age of 102. Chummy’s craftsmanship, humility, and ingenuity shaped not just Little Cranberry, but generations of Cranberry Isles families who learned from his example and carried forward his tradition of maritime skill and integrity.

Chummy’s legacy embodies everything Islesford Boatworks stands for: resourcefulness, patience, authentic mentorship, and the belief that young people grow best when they build real things with real tools in a community that trusts them.

A Local Program With Global Reach

Though our home is on the Cranberry Isles, the impact of Islesford Boatworks has traveled far beyond the shores of Maine. Over the past two decades:

Young builders have gone on to become engineers, educators, designers, mariners, scientists, artists, and craftspeople. Taking the ethos of IB into careers and communities around the world.
Seasonal families and volunteers have carried the lessons of the Boatworks back to their home towns and countries, sharing our philosophy of hands-on learning, attention to craft, and community collaboration.
Our boats, stories, and teaching approach have inspired programs far from the Cranberry Isles. From youth boatshops modeled on our methods to arts and leadership programs that adopted our “real skills, real trust” foundation.
The Artist in Residence program has connected Islesford to a global creative network, sending island-inspired art, craft, and storytelling to exhibitions, publications, and audiences well beyond Maine.
Alumni and friends of the program now live across the U.S. and internationally, yet remain anchored to the formative experiences they had in the Blue Duck.

What began in a small island boatshop has quietly grown into a movement, one that blends craftsmanship, creativity, and resilience, and one that resonates with donors and supporters near and far.

The Legacy Fund expands this ripple effect, ensuring that what starts here continues to travel outward for decades to come.

Why The Legacy Fund Matters:

Anchoring the Future of the Cranberry Isles**

At the heart of this initiative is one clear intention: To make Islesford Boatworks financially sustainable. Able to continue serving in all the ways we do without placing additional burden on a small island community already supporting many essential organizations.

Reaching the $102,000 goal will accomplish this through three key pathways:

1. Transforming the defunct bathrooms into the new Blue Duck Chandlery

Expanding the Blue Duck will allow us to create a fully functioning chandlery, strengthening both our mission and financial sustainability.

The chandlery will:

Serve the Cranberry Isles with essential and hard-to-find goods
Showcase and sell IB merchandise
Feature art from our AIR program and local makers
Provide home goods, hardware, books, stationery, kid crafts, bike repair items, and more
Offer “Chuddy’s Corner” a kid-friendly space inspired by a recently lost island hardware store. Or something like thisinspired by Chummy

Importantly: Sales, powered largely by tourists and visitors, will help fund all community-centered programs, such as: Morning coffee gatherings. Music jams. Social nights. Fall & spring youth programs. Artist in Residence. CommunityOff-season workshops and gatherings throughout the year.

This income can also offset key operational costs like rent, internet, and water system maintenance, reducing the need for annual fundraising.

2. Restoring a Necessary “Rainy Day Fund”

With a small population, the Cranberry Isles feel financial stress acutely. When grant opportunities shrank last year, our previous buffer, built slowly over years of careful stewardship, allowed us to:

Maintain all programs
Provide free or reduced tuition to ensure no child was turned away
Support island jobs
Sustain community activities year-round

That buffer is now spent.

Rebuilding it protects the community from future hardships and ensures that programs continue regardless of economic ups and downs.

3. Seeding the First Islesford Boatworks Endowment

As Islesford Boatworks becomes increasingly integral to island life, reliable, long-term revenue becomes essential.

A modest but growing endowment will allow us to:

Plan confidently for future years
Sustain staffing and island employment
Protect youth programs and community services
Reduce reliance on variable annual fundraising cycles
Ensure that programs, traditions, and mentorship endure

It’s ambitious and absolutely necessary for the next 20 years.

In Summary

The Legacy Fund: Blue Duck Expansion & Anchoring Our Future is our commitment to honoring the past, strengthening the present, and securing the future for the Cranberry Isles and for the far-reaching community touched by Islesford Boatworks. By raising $102,000 in honor of Chummy’s 102 years, we ensure that the craft, culture, and values he embodied continue to guide the next generation of builders, creators, and community leaders, near, far, and everywhere IB’s influence travels.

The Islesford Boatworks Legacy Fund

Blue Duck Expansion & Anchoring Our Future. Celebrating 20 Years of building opportunity, community, and a future for Maine’s working waterfront.

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