A do-it-yourself 80-ton metal schooner trapped in a Maine yard might lastly see water — if voters agree

Native Information

“He simply needs to get his schooner launched and get the hell out of the city of Freeport.” 

When Harold Arndt first got here to the city of Freeport in 1965, he was greeted by an indication on the city’s entrance that had a silhouette of a wood, two-masted schooner. 

Arndt says the signal represents Freeport’s lengthy maritime custom of shipbuilding, courting again to the 1800s — a practice he refuses to let Freeport neglect. 

“For no matter motive, Freeport in current instances has taken that signal down, and no person is aware of why apart from it confirmed a silhouette of one thing that they’ve sitting of their yard,” he stated.

Arndt signifies that actually — he constructed his personal schooner in Freeport, besides not like the one on the signal, it’s made out of 80 tons of recycled metal. The boat towers over his yard, a formidable feat that took many years to create. 

The one drawback is that the boat’s landlocked, lower than half a mile away from the water. However Arndt, 83, has been in authorized battles with the city since 2004 to lastly get his schooner, the Island Rover, launched. 

“It’s been a life obsession,” Arndt stated. “I’ve spent my complete life for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties doing it for the life process.”

Most not too long ago, at an Aug. 18 assembly, the Freeport City Council declined to undertake a residents’ ordinance allowing the launch. As a substitute, the council despatched it by the referendum course of. Now Arndt and his supporters have till Sept. 23 to gather 774 signatures from registered Freeport voters for the problem to look on the November poll. 

A workforce of Island Rover supporters, along with paid signature gatherers, is scrambling to get sufficient signatures earlier than the deadline to look on the poll. This would be the second poll try for the Island Rover, with supporters having failed in June to get sufficient signatures for it to look on the first poll. 

If the ordinance does make the poll, a public listening to will likely be held and the residents of Freeport will likely be given the chance in November to vote on whether or not Arndt can construct a short lived ramp to lastly put the Island Rover within the water, over 40 years since he first started the undertaking. 

“It provides the whole Freeport voters the chance to say, sufficient is sufficient, let’s simply launch the fu—ing boat,” Arndt stated. 

Constructing the Island Rover 

Arndt was working as a waste minimization administrator for Tub Iron Works, a serious shipyard in Maine, when he stated he seen a surplus of supplies being discarded by firms. This gave him an concept. 

“I as soon as made the assertion that I might construct a ship out of what’s thrown away,” he stated. “I simply determined that, moderately than say it, I used to be going to do it.” 

So within the Nineteen Eighties, Arndt determined to get to work and construct a ship totally out of scrap supplies to make a press release about business waste. His dream is to take school college students out on the boat and educate them about artistic methods to reuse supplies. 

However Arndt had no concept the best way to construct with metal — his solely expertise was constructing a 14-foot plywood boat along with his dad. 

“I sit right here at 83 years previous, and [when] I look again I say, ‘Wow, what the hell was I pondering?’ As a result of I actually didn’t know loads about boat constructing,” Arndt stated. 

To be taught what he wanted to learn about constructing out of metal, Arndt went to what’s now the New England Faculty of Welding in Auburn, Maine, the place the trainer took him beneath his wing. 

Utilizing the teachings discovered from his metal teacher, his expertise taking engineering lessons in school, and his background as a biology professor, Arndt constructed a large ship he says is able to be launched. 

Twain Braden, a Maine maritime lawyer representing Arndt, first met him in 1999 when he was {a magazine} author doing a narrative on Arndt’s undertaking. He stated he was instantly impressed by the scope and high quality of the undertaking. 

“There’s loads of hillbilly weirdos constructing boats and all types of loopy issues of their again forty,” he stated. “However Harold’s undertaking was completely different due to the standard and the size of it. Loads of individuals additionally construct good high quality boats of their yard, however they may construct a 25-foot boat or a 30-foot boat, however who the heck builds a full-size ship to American Bureau of Delivery requirements, inspected by the Coast Guard, of this scale? It was unimaginable, within the true sense of the phrase.” 

However the “unimaginable” boat didn’t come simply, and Arndt stated what he thought could be 5 years of building become a several-decades-long undertaking that lastly turned launchable three years in the past. 

Even now, whereas the boat is at the moment launchable, he stated it’s not precisely completed. There’s nonetheless work to be carried out on the boat’s inside, Arndt stated, however building’s stopped on account of ongoing authorized battles with the city. 

Authorized struggle with the city 

As if the duty of constructing an 80-ton do-it-yourself boat wasn’t laborious sufficient, Arndt has additionally been in authorized disputes with Freeport for the reason that early 2000s. 

Arndt’s authorized troubles started in 2004, after he shaped the nonprofit Island Rover Basis. City officers accused him of violating guidelines in opposition to “manufacturing use” in a residential zone, in response to The Press Herald. 

“You possibly can’t have a boat-building facility on a residential lot, is the underside line,” Freeport City Legal professional Amy Tchao stated. 

Judges have additionally repeatedly discovered Arndt violated court-imposed deadlines to maneuver the boat. In 2014, he agreed to maneuver the Island Rover out of the neighborhood inside two years or cede possession to the city, in response to Tchao. 

However the ship nonetheless has not moved, which Braden stated is as a result of the city retains “transferring the goalposts” on Arndt and his purpose of launching the Island Rover. Earlier than Braden bought concerned as Arndt’s authorized counsel, he’d been representing himself for practically 12 years, which Braden stated he believes the city took benefit of. 

“I prefer to work for the underdog, and Harold is a real underdog,” Braden stated. “ that previous expression, ‘You possibly can’t struggle metropolis corridor’ — properly, they’ve used all town corridor assets to punish him [and] attempt to get him to do what they need him to do, however he’s survived.”

The boat’s possession can be the topic of a lawsuit, as Arndt employed an area businessman, Carter Becker, in 2016 to assist end building and champion the Island Rover’s launch. However “on the eve of the city getting title to the property,” Tchao stated, Arndt mortgaged his property to Becker. 

The city sued each Becker and Arndt, alleging fraudulent switch and claiming the city has possession of the boat. The case regarding Island Rover possession is about to go to trial in December, Tchao stated. 

Albert Presgraves, former city engineer of 14 years and now a supporter of the Island Rover, stated he thinks the city is most frightened in regards to the legal responsibility if one thing goes mistaken whereas launching the boat.

Braden stated he’s annoyed by the city’s years of unwillingness to supply Arndt any help in his purpose. 

“What it comes right down to is no person needs to stay out their neck and assist as a result of they don’t have anything to achieve by doing so,” Braden stated. 

Round 2006, Presgraves stated he was within the “unlucky place” as city engineer of getting to determine what the city ought to do concerning Arndt’s undertaking, which he really helpful be offered for scrap.  

Nonetheless, since then Presgraves stated he has seen the completed boat and “would by no means advocate it’s scrapped.” He even stated he plans to assist collect signatures to get the boat on the November poll. 

“The boat can completely be moved and launched with none issues, and if there’s an issue, it may be handled,” Presgraves stated. 

Arndt stated he and Becker have moved the boat not too long ago, utilizing hydraulically pushed house-moving gear, to show to the city and the choose that it may very well be carried out. 

If the residents cross the referendum, it is going to be delivered to and launched from Becker’s waterfront property on Decrease Flying Level Street, the place they’d construct a short lived launching facility. This may require the boat to be hauled from the non-public right-of-way it sits on onto a public highway, after which to Becker’s property.

Environmental issues

However why hasn’t the city been supportive of Arndt’s dream of launching the Island Rover? Effectively, there are reliable issues, together with coastal erosion, attainable hurt to wildlife, and the likelihood the ship might get caught.

Tchao stated in September 2025, after two years of evaluate, the Freeport Coastal Waters Fee denied Arndt and Becker permission to construct a short lived boat launching facility on account of environmental issues. 

“[They] describe it as if launching a schooner on the coast of Maine is in some way an act of eco-terrorism, which is complete baloney, as a result of any halfwit scholar of Maine historical past is aware of that we’ve been launching hundreds and hundreds of schooners over a whole lot of years from seashores precisely like this, and never committing acts of environmental degradation,” Braden stated. 

Braden stated the fee took the “secure route” with their determination, with a purpose to keep away from pushback from the “offended neighbors”of Becker. 

Braden stated the Island Rover workforce employed its personal biologist, who addressed the environmental issues, together with potential hurt to horseshoe crabs and clams. The biologist discovered the wildlife will likely be dormant on the shore within the winter months, Braden stated, which is after they plan to launch the Island Rover.  

With permission denied by the fee, Tchao stated Arndt and his supporters turned to the referendum with a purpose to keep away from being held to environmental influence requirements. The city supervisor is at the moment making an attempt to get enter from the State Division of Environmental Safety on whether or not or not this ordinance would violate the Obligatory Shoreland Zoning Act if handed, Tchao stated. 

“It’s important to surprise about an ordinance that exempts from environmental evaluate the launching of an 80-ton vessel right into a salt marsh that, at excessive tide, has not more than six toes of water,” she stated, particularly provided that “an area board, after two years of evaluate, has already decided to disclaim that let utility as a result of the applicant had not met their burden of displaying that there wouldn’t be hostile environmental influence to those delicate assets.”

One other situation, Tchao stated, is that if the referendum is handed it does extra than simply permit the launch of the Island Rover —it grants anybody within the district permission within the subsequent two years to construct a short lived boat-launching facility with out having to fulfill environmental requirements.

However Braden argues it’s extremely unlikely anybody else within the district would make investments their money and time into constructing a ship and launching facility within the two-year interval it’s allowed. 

Tchao additionally stated the launching amenities might probably not be momentary, for the reason that ordinance permits the amenities to be within the water for seven months out of the yr indefinitely. 

However Braden stated Arndt solely plans to make use of the launching facility as soon as, as it is going to be made out of wooden and with costly rented gear that can’t keep within the water completely. 

“We’re not seeking to skirt the foundations,” Braden stated. “We’re simply seeking to quick monitor this as a result of it’ll by no means get launched.” 

A ‘life process’ in a altering coastal city 

What’s actually the issue, Braden stated, is Arndt’s an “old-school Maine man” in a city turning into more and more gentrified. Braden stated Freeport residents have develop into a “not-in-my-backyard,” upper-middle-class, conservative group that doesn’t respect Maine’s shipbuilding historical past. 

“They act as if a ship has by no means been constructed and launched on the coast of Maine,” he stated. “You possibly can think about if this have been in suburban Pennsylvania or one thing, however that is the coast of Maine. What city do you assume you reside in? What coast do you assume you reside on? It’s absurd.”

Early on, Braden stated neighbors and pals of Arndt have been impressed along with his undertaking and made verbal agreements that when the boat was prepared, it may very well be launched off their waterfront property. However by the point the Island Rover actually was prepared, Braden stated a lot of these neighbors have been gone. 

“As these properties began to vary palms, and folks from away got here and constructed their dream houses, they have been like, ‘What the hell is that this man doing within the woods behind my home?’” Braden stated. “So, their imaginative and prescient of why they got here there was anathema to anyone taking part in Maine’s boatbuilding, can-do, just-get-it-done heritage. Harold was this vestige of that point, however his group modified round him.” 

Regardless of this, Arndt manages to remain devoted to the mission, even being in his 80s and drowning in authorized disputes. He stated everybody ought to have a life’s process, and that is his. 

A former biology instructor at Bowdoin Faculty, Arndt says the true mission of the Island Rover is educating college students. He stated as a reminder, he has the Walt Disney quote “If I can envision it, then I can do it” stapled to the wall above his desk. 

“I set my thoughts to construct the boat as an indication of what business was throwing away,” he stated. “As soon as I made a decision it, then because it seems, all hell couldn’t get me to cease. So I’m satisfied that I’ll launch that boat, and there’s sufficient individuals surrounding me now that imagine the identical factor.” 

Braden stated Arndt’s capacity to maintain unwavering motivation is a “thriller” to him. 

“No matter tenacious streak that Harold has inside him that allowed him to construct this boat, which is simply unbelievable that he was capable of do it, is identical tenacity, persistence, stubbornness, and eccentricities that preserve him from being defeated emotionally by this group of individuals,” Braden stated. 

Braden stated by all of it, Arndt has remained optimistic and steadfast on his purpose. 

“The vehemence, the anger, the insults, absolutely the lying that these city officers … have heaped on [Arndt],” he stated. “It’s simply terrible, and but he’s nonetheless this optimistic spirit and he simply needs to get his schooner launched and get the hell out of the city of Freeport.” 

Arndt was the main target of a 2024 characteristic documentary: “The Island Rover (Harold’s Boat Drawback).“