castine class sailboat

• CLASSIFIEDS
• NEWSLETTERS
• SUBMIT NEWS

An interview with David Bicks about the 2018 Castine Classic Yacht Race

Related Articles

• Inter-island News
• Environment
• Book Review
• Climate Change
• Cranberry Report
• Salt Water Cure
• Journal of an Island Kitchen
• Reflections
• Field Notes
• Letters to the Editor
• In Plain Sight
• Dispatches from World Ocean Observatory

The Working Waterfront

Gregory dunham paints eaton’s boatyard, preserving images of a vanishing waterfront.

In 1980, inspired by friend and mentor, the famed lithographer Stow Wengenroth (1906-1978), painter Gregory Dunham and his wife-to-be Pat McGrath decided to go on a “pilgrimage” to some of the Maine towns the artist had frequented in his lifetime.

From their home in Rockport, Mass., they drove straight to Eastport where Wengenroth’s love of Maine began in the 1930s and where its landscape inspired his first brilliant prints.

Over four days the couple squeezed in Eastport, along with Lubec, Corea, Winter Harbor, Castine, Port Clyde, Boothbay Harbor, Wiscasset, Kennebunkport, and Ogunquit. Seven years later, having considered their options, they moved to Castine with their nine-month-old son Stow and opened the McGrath Dunham Gallery.

The boatyard has provided a “nearly endless supply of inspiration,” Dunham writes…

In the 40-plus years since that fateful trip, Dunham has witnessed the slow—and sometimes not so slow—disappearance of the working waterfront as weathered wharves and fishing shacks give way to gentrification. These changes are in part what compels him to paint docks, sheds, skiffs—and Eaton’s boatyard in his adopted hometown.

The boatyard has provided a “nearly endless supply of inspiration,” Dunham writes, a subject to which he returns again and again—and will continue to do so “as long as it remains an active, cluttered working boatyard.”

In one of his paintings a Castine class sailboat, designed and built by the Eaton family, is parked in the yard, its lovely white hull set against the warm gray of the building.

“I love the shape and colors of wooden skiffs and dories and the stories they tell,” writes Dunham, “and I mourn their loss with the advent of Zodiacs.”

If you don’t count Maine Maritime Academy, the boatyard is pretty much the last bastion of marine business on the Castine shoreline. A recent walk-through confirmed its description in Philip Booth’s splendid poem, “Eaton’s Boatyard,” where he offers an inventory of some of the odds and ends you can find within, including “split rudders, / stripped outboards, half / a gasket, and nailsick garboards.”

But the visit also verified the comeliness of the place as depicted in Dunham’s painting: the weathered shingles, the simple signage—the nobility, if you will, of the structure.

Dunham is a watercolor painter of the first order, known for his landscapes of Maine, Canada, England, and other places connected to the sea. Asked what it is that draws him to paint harbors, he shares the most obvious reason, their picturesqueness, but also expresses his desire to document them before they’re gone.

Dunham says he feels “comfortable and at home” in the dockside milieu. While he loves Maine’s rugged coast and crashing surf, it’s the working harbors that inspire and comfort him.

“The weather-beaten fish houses and wharves on spindly pilings that stand against the tides and wind tell stories of hardship, bravery, independence, and fortitude,” he writes.

On a visit to Mousehole in Cornwall, England, in 1999, Dunham felt the seaside town was somehow embedded in his genes, that he must have an ancestral connection to it. That experience underscores why he ended up in Rockport and then Castine, “intrigued,” he says, by coastal towns “with the color and action around the docks, the smell of salt air, and, of course, the light.”

Dunham is represented by Gallery B in Castine, Full Fathom Five Gallery in Eastport, and the Patricia Hutton Galleries in Doylestown, Penn. You can view more of his work at www.gregorydunham.com. Two of his paintings will appear in Carl and David Little’s forthcoming book The Art of Penobscot Bay (Islandport Press). To learn about the history of Eaton’s boatyard, visit the “Living History” page on the Castine Historical Society website.

What TO Read Next...

Islesboro’s olivia britton serving on umaine board, newfoundland, maine share maritime past, waterfront access jeopardized by storms, share this article.

SITE DESIGNED & DEVELOPED BY NORTHEAST MEDIA COLLECTIVE

• BOAT OF THE YEAR
• Newsletters
• Sailboat Reviews
• Boating Safety
• Sailing Totem
• Charter Resources
• Destinations
• Galley Recipes
• Living Aboard
• Sails and Rigging
• Maintenance
• Best Marine Electronics & Technology

Castine Classic Yacht Race

• By Cruising World Staff
• Updated: August 6, 2013

Castine Classic Yacht Regatta

In the 14th annual Castine Classic Yacht Regatta, Black Watch , a 67.8′ Sparkman & Stephens yawl built in 1958, sailed by Peter Kellogg and Lars Forsberg, led a fleet of 40 classic yachts to win the coveted Ames Cup. The Ames Cup honors the memory of Richard Glover Ames and Henry Russell Ames who were lost at sea on June 9th, 1935 south of the Grand Banks in an unsuccessful effort to save their father who was washed overboard during the Newport to Bergen, Norway yacht race. The Ames family hailed from Castine.

This year’s Castine Classic Regatta celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the famed 39’10” and 41’ Concordia yawls. Designed by C. Raymond Hunt with the assistance of Waldo Howland, the Concordia Company commissioned 103 yachts of this class from 1938 to 1966, all but four of which were built at the Abeking and Rasmussen shipyard in Germany. With their extraordinary success as offshore racers and cruisers, these Concordias became the biggest class of large wooden sailboats ever constructed.

Prior to the race, 13 Concordia yachts were on exhibition at the Castine town dock and were honored at a symposium at the Maine Maritime Academy. The large crowd attending the symposium heard from speakers illuminating the finer details of the design, construction, and sailing qualities of these boats. John Eide, editor of The Concordian and owner of Golondrina , chaired the symposium, which included Doug Adkins, author of Dorade: The History of an Ocean Racing Yacht and owner of Concordia Coriolis; Queene Foster, who has sailed Concordias since the 1970’s; Giffy Full, the dean of wooden boat surveyors; Brodie MacGregor, owner of the Concordia Company; Benjamin Mendlowitz, premier wooden boat photographer; and Jon Wilson, founder of WoodenBoat Magazine .

The Castine event kicked off three days of classic boat racing, culminating in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.

The 19.6 mile race from Castine to Camden, sponsored by the Castine Yacht Club, was sailed under ideal conditions this year. David Bicks, co-chair of the event with Bob Scott of Castine, said that “In the last two years, our race was plagued by fog and lack of wind. But this year’s clear skies and steady 8-12 knot southeast breeze made for perfect sailing conditions.”

Katrina , a 41′ Concordia built in 1963, sailed by Joe Harris, led the celebrated Concordia fleet. Otter, sailed by Robert Keefer, took second place, followed by John Eide’s Golondrina.

In the Classic A Class, Black Watch was followed by Puffin , a 47.8′ Sparkman & Stephens design built in 1969 and sailed by Cabot Lyman. Spartan , a 72′ Herreshoff-designed NY-50 built in 1912 and skippered by Charles Ryan, took third place. The Classic A Class included a highly competitive match race among four Sparkman & Stephens 45′ NY-32s built in 1936. Falcon , sailed by Bob Scott of Castine, edged out Siren , sailed by Peter Cassidy; Isla , sailed by Henry May; and Gentian , sailed by Richard Armstrong, to lead the NY-32s in the three race series.

Thora , a Little Harbor 38 sailed by Vince Todd, led the Classic B Class. Palawan , a 47′ Sparkman & Stephens yawl built in 1952 and skippered by Scott Gazelle, took second place. Tiger Maru , a 37′ Laurent Giles design built in 1971 and skippered by Julien Davies, followed close behind in third place.

In the Spirit of Tradition Class, Isobel , a 75′ sloop designed by Stephens-Waring and built in 2011, sailed by Richard Schotte, claimed first place honors. The 47′ Stephens Taylor designed Lark , built in 2012 and skippered by Patrick Wilmerding, took second place, followed by Vortex , Steve White’s 52′ Reimers sloop.

At the awards ceremony at the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin following the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, Bicks presented the Ames Cup and the Sparkman & Stephens trophy to Peter Kellogg and Lars Forsberg of Black Watch . The Mitch Gibbons-Neff trophy, presented in memory of Mitch Gibbons-Neff, late head of S&S who regularly crewed on Scott’s NY-32 Falcon , was awarded to Bob Scott, skipper of Falcon .

The Phalarope trophy, awarded to the top Concordia yacht in memory of Thomas G. Ashton Sr, was presented to Joe Harris of Katrina .

• More: Cruising News , new england/northeast , people
• More People

A Legendary Sail

10 best sailing movies of all time, kirsten neuschäfer receives cca blue water medal, 2024 regata del sol al sol registration closing soon, us sailing honors bob johnstone.

• Digital Edition
• Customer Service
• Privacy Policy
• Email Newsletters
• Cruising World
• Sailing World
• Salt Water Sportsman
• Sport Fishing
• Wakeboarding

Search form

• MaineBoats Blog

Marilee takes Castine Classic Race

Monday, august 6th 2018.

Marilee , a 49’ Herreshoff NY-40 built in 1926 and sailed by Andrew Parente, led the fleet in the nineteenth annual Castine Classic Yacht Race to Camden sponsored by the Castine Yacht Club. The Castine event kicked off three days of classic boat racing, culminating in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.

Under clear skies and a brisk southwest breeze, the 36-boat fleet set sail from the Castine harbor bell on a 19.6nm course ending off Curtis island in Camden. Sailing in Classic A class, Marilee beat by almost four minutes Sonny , a 53’ Sparkman & Stephens sloop sailed by Laurel Gaudet. The Blue Peter , a 65’ Milne designed sloop built in 1930 sailed by Mathew Barker, took third place.

The Classic B fleet was led by Leaf , a 38’ Luders 24 built in 1946 sailed by Chris Bouzaid, followed by Palawan , a 48’ S&S sloop built in 1952 sailed by Scott Gazelle, and Otter , a 41’ Concordia built in 1954 sailed by Robert Keefer.

The Classic C fleet struggled with a dying breeze late in the day, with the 30’ Atlantic class Silverfish , sailed by JB Turner, crossing the line first. In the Spirit of Tradition class, Blackfish , a 49’ Brooklin Boatyard/Jim Taylor sloop launched in 2017 sailed by Ron Zarella, took honors, besting Anna , a newly launched 65’ sloop built by Lyman-Morse sailed by Anthony Merck. Isobel , a 69’ sloop sailed by Richard Schotte, took third place.

The race was preceded by a a Symposium chaired by famed sailo , author and yachting commentator Gary Jobson, celebrating Maine sailboat builders, including Brooklin Boatyard, Rockport Marine, Lyman-Morse, French & Webb, and Artisan Boatworks. At the conclusion of the Symposium before a large crowd at the Maine Maritime Academy, event Chairman David Bicks commented that “the young, articulate and tech-savvy builders on the panel confirmed the bright future of our world class Maine builders.” As overall winner, the Ames Cup was awarded to Marilee . The Ames Cup honors the memory of Richard Glover Ames and Henry Russell Ames who were lost at sea on June 19, 1935 south of the Grand Banks in an unsuccessful effort to save their father who was washed overboard during the Newport to Bergen, Norway yacht race. The Ames family hailed from Castine. Sonny won the Sparkman & Stephens trophy as S&S yacht with lowest corrected time. The Phalarope trophy, awarded to the top Concordia yacht in memory of Thomas G. Ashton Sr., was won by Otter.

Photos by Kathy Mansfield 1. Marilee, overall winner 2. Start of Classic A fleet

Share this post:

Related posts.

Digital Edition Available ×

Can't get to the store to buy your magazine? We deliver the stories of Maine's coast right to your inbox. Sign up here for a digital edition .

2023 Maine Boat & Home Show ×

Join Us for the Maine Boat & Home Show !

Art, Artisans, Food, Fun & Boats, Boats, Boats

August 11 - 13, 2023 | On the waterfront, Rockland, Maine

Click here to pre-order your tickets.

Show is produced by Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine.

Marilee Takes Castine Classic Race

Castine celebrates maine builders.

Castine, Me. — Marilee, a 49’ Herreshoff NY-40 built in 1925 sailed by Andrew Parente, led the fleet in the nineteenth annual Castine Classic Yacht Race to Camden sponsored by the Castine Yacht Club.

The Castine event kicked off three days of classic boat racing, culminating in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.

Under clear skies and a brisk southwest breeze, the thirty-six boat fleet set sail from the Castine harbor bell on a 19.6nm course ending off Curtis island in Camden. Sailing in Classic A class, Marilee beat by almost four minutes Sonny, a 53’ Sparkman & Stephens sloop sailed by Laurel Gaudet. The Blue Peter, a 65’ Milne designed sloop built in 1930 sailed by Mathew Barker, took third place.

The Classic B fleet was led by Leaf, a 38’ Luders 24 built in 1946 sailed by Chris Bouzaid, followed by Palawan, a 48’ S&S sloop built in 1952 sailed by Scott Gazelle, and Otter, a 41’ Concordia built in 1954 sailed by Robert Keefer.

The Classic C fleet struggled with a dying breeze late in the day, with 30’ Atlantic class Silverfish, sailed by JB Turner, crossing the line first.

In the Spirit of Tradition class, Blackfish, a 49’ Brooklin Boatyard/Jim Taylor sloop launched in 2017 sailed by Ron Zarella, took honors, besting Anna, a newly launched 65’ sloop built by Lyman-Morse sailed by Anthony Merck. Isobel, a 69’ sloop sailed by Richard Schotte, took third place.

The race was preceded by a a Symposium chaired by famed sailor, author and yachting commentator Gary Jobson, celebrating Maine sailboat builders, including Brooklin Boatyard, Rockport Marine, Lyman-Morse, French & Webb, and Artisan Boatworks. At the conclusion of the Symposium before a large crowd at the Maine Maritime Academy, event Chairman David Bicks commented that “the young, articulate and tech-savvy builders on the panel confirmed the bright future of our world class Maine builders.”

As overall winner, the Ames Cup was awarded to Marilee. The Ames Cup honors the memory of Richard Glover Ames and Henry Russell Ames who were lost at sea on June 19, 1935, south of the Grand Banks in an unsuccessful effort to save their father who was washed overboard during the Newport to Bergen, Norway, yacht race. The Ames family hailed from Castine.

Sonny won the Sparkman & Stephens trophy as S&S yacht with lowest corrected time. The Phalarope trophy, awarded to the top Concordia yacht in memory of Thomas G. Ashton Sr., was won by Otter.

Download full race results: http://castineclassic.com/pdf/2018-Race-Results-2.pdf

Related posts:

• Russian Dragon Open – Light Weather
• Mystic Seaport – William A. Baker Award
• On this Day ( December 8) – Ship Fled 3,000 Miles to Escape Japanese
• Corinthian Classic Yacht Regatta – Summer’s Comin’. Really!

Leave a Comment Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Address:

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

September 2018    Volume 23, No. 9

   Home          About Us          Subscribe          Advertise          Archives          Contact  

Castine’s John P. Gardner and His Ship Models

by Sandra Dinsmore

Model of the Juliet Tilden built by John Gardner of Castine, Maine. Wilson Museum photo.

Set like freestanding sculptures in a field near the cusp of Maine’s Penobscot Bay and River, John Gardner’s house and studio looks like it loves the the ground it stands on.

An artist and ship model maker by profession, Gardner designed the studio’s lines and proportions from a composite of several early buildings that pleased his eye. A sculptor and perfectionist by nature, he treated the structure as he does his ship models: as three-dimensional art that incorporates and becomes apart of its surroundings.

The studio, a one-room building, looks like a small house with its windows and sturdy brick chimney. Gardner’s wife, Elaine, had painted the clapboards on the front a soft gold to blend with the dried field grass; nature had weathered the shingles on the sides and back to blend with the nearby glacial rocks.

John Gardner drew from the time he could hold a crayon or a pencil. He’s been drawing and carving ever since. Descended from generations of seafaring men, Gardner has lived near the water just about all his life and he’s worked on the water or on the waterfront from the time he first held a job. His father was a sea captain who shepherded Liberty ships across the Atlantic during World War II.

School didn’t really work for Gardner. He says the only thing he could manage was art and shop. Consequently, he dropped out when he was seventeen. He spent the next two years in the Navy.

After completing his two requisite years, Gardner attended New York’s Art Students League on the GI Bill for a year and a half, studying drawing and painting.

After an abortive attempt to sail around the world as crew on a vessel that apparently never should have left New York Harbor, Gardner worked as a deckhand on tugboats in New York, the Erie Canal, and Detroit. After a year, he went back to the New York waterfront where he worked as a pier superintendent. “I don’t think I could have been successful at any other job,” Gardner said. “I found my niche. I loved it much more than going to sea.”

There’s a side to the waterfront you don’t talk about. It’s there and it’s left unsaid because it’s not your business.

Gardner’s success as a pier superintendent was partly because of the way he got his men to work for him. He described one example of how he turned a problem into an asset. One particular longshoreman caused trouble and constantly complained. “He was like a locomotive in the hold. I had to do something, so I wondered if giving him more responsibility would help.” Gardner said he called the man aside one day and — lightning should have struck him — told him he had a way with the men and would he like to be a hatch boss. The longshoreman muttered that he didn’t think Gardner had ever noticed him, said he’d give it a try, and from then on, Gardner never had a moment’s trouble with him. “He turned out to be one of my best hatch bosses,” the pier superintendent recalled. “He was a hard worker, and big enough to be physically intimidating to the other men; you want a little of that on the waterfront.

“Those were good years,” he said. “I made a lot of friends.” One of those friends was Joe Mickey, the head pier superintendent at the Brooklyn Breakwater.

When asked to describe Gardner during their years on the waterfront, Mickey noted Gardner’s “easy rapport with the longshoremen and his inexhaustible energy.” He then explained, “On the waterfront, you have to be tested before you are accepted. John passed, and his acceptance was instant and positive.”

On the other hand, Mickey, who died in the late 1990s, mentioned what he referred to as Gardner’s shortcomings in mathematics, citing problems he had with the reports he had to make on the loading or discharging of ships. To help him, Mickey appropriated an old adding machine from the accounting storeroom that he claimed must have weighted fifty-five pounds, in those days before pocket calculators. He said Gardner lugged that woolly mammoth around with him, and it solved the problem. As to Gardner’s personality, Mickey astutely remarked, “John remained a boy a little longer than most young adults.”

During his years on the waterfront Gardner never took a bribe and never got involved with the mob because of the positive lessons he learned from his father. When a union boss sent his father a television set for Christmas, Captain Gardner sent it back. So when his son, as a young pier superintendent, was offered his first bribe, money in an envelope from an Argentinean captain who was doing something illegal, he didn’t even look at it. “There’s a lot you don’t want to know about the waterfront,” Gardner recalled. “There’s a side to the waterfront you don’t talk about. It’s there and it’s left unsaid because it’s not your business, and you don’t want to be the one to make it the world’s business either.”

After working on the New York waterfront, he was transferred to Detroit, which simply did not work for Gardner. He quickly moved back to what he considered professional longshoremen in New York, where he met and fell in love with the beautiful Elaine Caretto.

In 1974, Gardner became curator of a maritime museum at Maine Maritime Academy, in Castine.

Transferred from the Brooklyn Breakwater to Bayonne, New Jersey, Gardner was so in love with Elaine, he even moved to what he called a fleabag hotel on Long Island, just to be closer to her. Because his driver’s license had been revoked for speeding, he had to catch a train at three in the morning in order to reach his pier superintendent’s job in time for work. He used the hours sitting on the commuter train to carve ship models. Traveling with balsa wood and razor blades, he’d carve one hull per trip. So between carving while commuting and sketching during his lunch hour, he continued to practice his art.

Gardner married Elaine in 1967. Two years later their daughter Julianne was born. That year he and Elaine bought a 26-foot O’Day Outlaw sloop, which he learned to sail and to race. He raced the sloop, renamed JULIE, for the next 15 years.

In 1974, Gardner became curator of a maritime museum at Maine Maritime Academy, in Castine, the Allie Ryan Museum, where he also carved ship models. Although he had begun serious study of ship model-making back in the 1960s with a view toward becoming a professional, Gardner did not make his first sale until later in 1974, when he sold the eight steamboat models to the Marine Arts Gallery, in Salem, Massachusetts. He then made a model of the schooner MATTIE, alternately named GRACE BAILEY.

He sold the MATTIE in 1986. When she was about to be renovated, because the detail of Gardner’s model is so accurate, MATTIE’s captain, Ted Schmidt, came to Castine to see the model and based his renovations on Gardner’s work.

While at the Allie Ryan Museum, Gardner also made a waterline model of another type of old schooner: an imaginary pinky he named ROMP. The pinky schooner, a type of fishing vessel, flourished from the 1820s—with its heyday in the 1840s—to the 1880s when it faded away as newer types evolved. Easily recognizable, its distinctive high, narrow, pointed stern protected fishermen from getting “pooped.” (When running before the wind: wind coming from behind the vessel, heavy seas can break over the stern and deluge or sweep overboard any fishermen working aft.)

ROMP was the first of three pinkies Gardner made. He loves to depict old schooners, and Maine pinkies, in particular, seem to unleash his imagination.

The late poet Philip Booth bought the model with what he called its cod head and mackerel tail. He said he saw ROMP in process at the museum, liked its character, and thought it seemed right for his family-descended Greek revival house of the same period. He said he paid for the model with part of the advance on his book, Available Light.

Describing Gardner’s loyalty to his work, Booth observed, “Very much, his loyalty to a model is in getting things right in the same way that the original builder would try to get it right for the same reasons: that the model be as weatherly as the full-scale vessel—if the wind came up in the showcase.”

Gardner continued making ship models and taking people sailing until 1979, when he went back to sea as a deckhand on the ALASKAN SEAHORSE, a 200-foot offshore-supply tug for the oil rigs in the Hudson Canyon of the Atlantic Ocean, 150 miles off the coast of New York. That autumn, with steady money coming in from his work on the SEAHORSE, he designed an art studio. In 1977, he and Elaine had bought twelve acres on the outer edges of Castine—six acres of woods and six more of cleared blueberry fields.

A fall from vessel to dock in 1981, in which he fractured two vertebrae in his neck, ended Gardner’s seagoing career. It took about a year for the nerves to heal and the numbness to leave his body, leaving only a residual, painful arthritic neck to remind him of his brush with paralysis.

During that year of recovery, the Gardners’ income hit an all-time low. Because John couldn’t work, Elaine worked part-time at several jobs and John, when he could, worked on a model of a pinky schooner of his own design, which he named ANNIE, for his five-year-old younger daughter.

“I took the lines of it from other pinkies,” John said. “It’s kind of my own boat. If I were living in the 1840s and wanted to build a pinky, it would be that boat.”

Model of the Grace Bailey built by John Gardner of Castine, Maine. Wilson Museum photo.

After completing ANNIE, Gardner’s work picked up. During the next couple of years he completed several models and a Finnish-built, Palmer-Johnson sloop, BLACK MALLARD II. Lansdell McRoberts, son of the owner of BLACK MALLARD II, helped Gardner carry the heavy plate glass–cased model. He had worked for three summers on BLACK MALLARD II. After the model was set up, McRoberts said he sat and studied the model for three hours. He found only two inaccuracies: Gardner had included a line that had been left in place after routine maintenance and he had tied the man-overboard pole differently on the starboard side. “It astounded me,” McRoberts said. “It was the most perplexing thing: I didn’t think anybody could be that accurate. It was like capturing a piece of my life.”

Gardner, told of McRoberts’s reaction, admitted, “I knew I caught the spirit of the boat.” He also caught the spirit of nine models of Castine-class sloops he built between 1982 to 1985, bringing out the distinctiveness of each vessel and setting each model differently, including the four versions of HOPPIE he created for David, Henry, Ed Jr., and Helen Miller.

David Bicks of Castine, has a Gardner model of his Castine-class sailboat, CAROLINE B. He explained what makes him feel so strongly about his model. “Two things, One: the absolute faithful detail, down to the sloppy tape on the turnbuckles. Two: the way the thing is set. John set the boat on the ways, and if you look at the model and just focus in the case, you have no feeling that you’re not looking at the real thing.”

Getting commissions and selling models has been for Gardner mostly a matter of word-of-mouth or seeing a model in progress. Always insecure, he said he was surprised that he got the commission for SWAN V. The owner responded to an advertisement Gardner ran in WoodenBoat magazine that included a photograph of his model of RANGER. Of the commission, Gardner said, “I was amazed that anybody would want to take a chance like that on my work. I felt inadequate.” He still does. When I mentioned the success of his model of RANGER, the perfectionist in him replied. “The RANGER never looked good to me until I saw it years later. I see things about it that I would change.”

Because he had not seen the plans or the vessel, Gardner flew to Antibes, where he spent twelve days living aboard the yacht, getting a sense of the vessel and taking measurements and photographs. When he returned, Bicks said he asked him what he thought of the boat, “knowing what his reaction was going to be because it’s essentially a plywood Italian speedboat.” He said Gardner told him, ‘The best thing about it is that it has smoked windows, so I don’t have to build the goddamn furniture.’

A fishing friend, Nathan Cooper, said, “It’s amazing that he can do that intricate work because as a carpenter, he can’t drive a nail in a board. I don’t know how he does it, because he’s half blind. He wears glasses, but he has these magnifiers.

“He’s behind that bench all day long. That’s got to be mind-bending—getting every little plank—but he sells the Castine-class models for more than the sailboats cost originally.

“When he makes those models, he knows the right kind of block that you’re supposed to use for this rig and that rig. He makes the wooden block and he rigs it so it would actually work; and that, alone, is like an art, all by itself: rigging the block. He looks at the boat and takes pictures, and if there’s a little bit of rust on the boat, he puts it on the model. He builds his models the way you’d build a boat. A lot of people just get little skinny plywood, or whatever, but he makes ribs.”

Cooper then astutely observed, “He has to have a deadline on the models. When he’s up against a wall and working all night, that’s when he does his best work.”

“You know, it’s funny,” he mused, “but as I think about it, I get a visual image of the time and surroundings, and, boom! I’m there.”

Severe Herring Fishery Cuts on Tap as Young Fish Remain Elusive

Captured by The Mohawks

Editorial – You Never Know

Schooner Ardelle

No Quota Increase for Maine Elver Fishery

DEI Cuts Ribbon on Nation’s Easternmost Marine Research Facility

Small-scale Fisheries Threatened

Alewives Return to the Penobscot, But Who’s Counting?

A Warming Gulf of Maine

Hidden Hand-made Baskets Helped Save Passamaquoddy Bay

Winter Harbor & Pemaquid Races

Algae Blooms, Lake Tai, Jiangsu Province, China

Lee Wilbur – An Ambulance Ride

Back Then – Corea Harbor

©2018 Fishermen's Voice   |   Website design by Lynn Pussic - e-mail

Classic Yacht Challenge Series Regatta

Castine Classic Yacht Race

August 5, 2021 - Castine, ME

Division Region:

Number of Races: 1

The Camden Classics Cup is one of the world’s most beautiful regattas - sailed where the mountains meet the sea off the lovely harbortown of Camden, Maine.   The Camden Classics Cup aims to give sailors the time of their lives with terrific on-the-water racing, and stellar onshore events. 

Presented by Lyman-Morse in conjunction with the Camden Yacht Club and with support from the CYOA, the Camden Classics Cup is a celebration of both classic yacht racing and boatbuilding. Featuring 2-days of racing for sailboats and a panoramic backdrop for powerboats. Participants will have access to Lyman-Morse's facilities, and a full weekend of events in the lovely town of Camden! 

Participating CYOA Yachts: 

(Click a boat to see the profile. Owners: you can update your profile under the  Portal ).

Thanks to our Diamond and Gold Partners

Interested in becoming a partner of the cyoa join as a partner online or contact us at info @ classicyachts.org for details..

SPERRY SAILS

The Classic Yacht Owners Association is an exempt organization as described in Section 501(C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations and membership fees are charitable contributions and tax-deductible. Employer Identification Number: 81-285925

© Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved. Website by risingT, LLC.

Castine Classic Yacht Race

1 august 2024, 2023 results, black watch leads castine classic fleet.

The 24th annual Castine Classic 19.6nm race to Camden, sponsored by the Castine Yacht Club, was sailed on August 3 on Penobscot Bay.

The race was the first of a three race series, followed by the Camden to Brooklin feeder race and the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta. The twenty-eight yacht fleet beat down the sparkling waters of Penobscot Bay in a brisk and steady southwest breeze, rounded Robinson Rock south of Islesboro and had a spinnaker run to the finish off Curtis Island in Camden.

Black Watch , a 68’ Sparkman & Stephens designed yawl built in 1938 and skippered by Kyle Dufur, took Classic A honors. Black Watch was awarded the Ames Cup as overall winner of the Classic A, B and C fleets.

The Ames Cup is given in memory of the Ames family which hailed from Castine. Their two sons were lost off the Grand Banks in an unsuccessful effort to save their father who was washed overboard in the 1935 Newport to Bergen, Norway race. Black Watch also won the Sparkman & Stephens trophy as the top S&S yacht in the fleet.

Classic B honors went to Bijou II , a 40’ Reimers designed sloop built in 1972, skippered by Chris Bouzaid.

Spirit , a 47’ yawl designed by John Alden and built in 1934, sailed by Lars and Peter Forsberg, took top spot in Classic C. Classic C included four Concordia yawls. Otter won the Phalarope trophy awarded to the top Concordia yacht. This year’s race celebrated Concordia yachts with a special exhibition at the Castine Town Dock.

The Spirit of Tradition fleet was led by Outlier , skippered by Harvey Jones. Outlier is 55’ Botin design built in 2019.

The pictures below are by Kathy Mansfield, noted British yachting photojournalist.

Castine Classic Yacht Race 2023 results

• View / Download full race results

Castine Classic 2023 Photos

(Photos credit Kathy Mansfield.)

Concordias at the Castine Town Dock — celebrated at the Castine Classic Yacht Race

Black Watch , a 1938 Sparkman & Stephens design, awarded Ames Cup as overall winner of the regatta

The Castine Classic race start for Classic B

Otter , a Concordia 41 — winner of the Concordia fleet

Spirit , a 1934 John Alden schooner — winner of Classic C

Outlier , a 2019 Botin 55 — winner of the Spirit of Tradition

Bijou II , a 1972 30 square meter — winner of Classic B

Exploring the wonders of the sea on the coast of Maine

The Castine Yacht Club, is a haven for boaters of all kinds. We are a private club dedicated to the encouragement of yachting in our Town.

Lessons & Clinics

Programs for members and non-members of all ages.  

Dinghy, storage, program, and visiting yacht fees for members and non-members.

Events Calendar

Member and non-member events for all ages throughout the summer.

Explore the Yacht Club

Castine Yacht Club, overlooking Castine Harbor, offers sailing lessons for all abilities, Colgate and Mercury racing, kayak tours, Castine Class races on Saturdays, the Eaton Stew party in August, and Classic Yacht Week leading up to the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta in early August.

Yacht Staff

Hope bowden - waterfront director.