Faced with a “significant and sustained decline in enrollment,” the Landing School of Boatbuilding & Design, based in Arundel for close to 50 years, has announced it graduated its final class this spring.
Faced with a “significant and sustained decline in enrollment,” the Landing School of Boatbuilding & Design, based in Arundel for close to 50 years, has announced it graduated its final class this spring.
President John Caron and board Chair Susan Swanton announced the closure in a joint statement on the school’s website.
“It is with deep sorrow that we announce the Landing School will be closing," the message read.
“Despite strategic planning, program adjustments and tireless efforts by our board of trustees, faculty and staff, the enrollment shortfall created financial pressures that make it impossible to sustain operations at the level our mission demands.”
Enrollment at the marine trades college had dwindled from a high of 83 students in 2014 to 33 in the final graduating class.
Broader forces reshaping higher education — rising costs, shifting workforce trends, and changing perceptions of higher education — “have hit small, mission-driven schools like ours especially hard. We did not make this decision quickly or lightly," the leaders said.
Two-year degree program
Since its founding in 1978 by John Burgess and Cricket Tupper, the school has graduated close to 1,800 students through accredited degree programs in yacht and commercial design, marine systems and both wooden and composite boatbuilding.
It claimed to be the only college offering accredited programs in all of those disciplines under one roof.
The school was named for its location near “the Landing,” a stretch of the Kennebunk River which was once home to more than 20 shipbuilding firms dating back to the 1600s.
The first class of students, just nine in total, launched a Chamberlain dory-skiff, from a cow barn as a classroom.
John Caron has led the school as president since 2024. PROVIDED PHOTO
Tuition for the most recent academic year was just over $27,000 for the 9-month diploma program. The college also offered two-year degrees.
Revenue in the most recent year tracked by GuideStar was $2.3 million, according to the 2025 Mainebiz Giving Guide.
Information on the school’s website said deposits for the upcoming academic year will be fully refunded, and the school pledges to continue to offer career services to graduates “for the foreseeable future.”
No final decisions have been made regarding the campus at 286 River Road in Arundel, the equipment or student work and archival materials, but the school plans to share updates as they become available.
The legacy
“While our doors are closing, the Landing School lives on in every graduate who carried their skills to a boatyard, design studio or workshop," board Chair Swanton posted on the website.
“It lives on in the vessels built, the careers launched and the communities strengthened by the marine professionals we helped shape. Nearly five decades of craftsmanship and passion do not disappear, they endure in the hands and work of the people we were privileged to teach.”
