Camden Windjammer Festival...Labor Day weekend

Chowder contest, crate race results, and photos from Camden’s big day today

Sat, 09/03/2016 - 9:30pm

CAMDEN — Camden Windjammer Festival continued all day Saturday, beginning with the Camden Rotary Club annual pancake breakfast and then West Bay Rotary Club’s annual Chowder Challenge for the lunchtime crowd. Between and after there were boats to build, and faces to paint, booths to explore and music to listen to.

Over in Harbor Park the Nautical Dog Show was a barking success, and then it was time for Lobster Crate Races followed by the First Fish Relay Race. The Pirates of the Dark Rose invaded, err visited the citizens of Camden, while schooners at the town docks offered open house tours aboard and below decks.

By popular vote of the audience tasters, winners of the Chowder Challenge were Graffam’s Seafood (first), Pen Bay Medical Center Cafe (second) and Samoset Resort (third).

The Lobster Crate Race was held under bright sunny blue skies, with warm air temperatures that might have made the harbor temps feel a little colder for the racers who went in the drink during their runs. When it was all said and done, a total of 31 racers stepped off the docks onto the first crate.

According to the official results Freddy Martinez tallied the fewest crates the fastest: 4 in 2 seconds. Following behind Freddy was Samuel Jiminez with 4 crates in 3 seconds. Freddy’s son, Ethan Martinez crossed two more than his dad, racking up 6 crates in 6 seconds, as did Jason Grant (6 crates in 4 seconds). There was hope from the crowd that the younger Martinez, with his shorter stature and lower center of gravity, would recover his fumble and keep moving, but he was unable to regain his balance once it started to leave him.

The winner of the 2016 Lobster Crate Race was Lucas Drinkwater, who tallied a blazing 336 crates during the total allotted run of 2 minutes. Second place was a tie between Britta Denny and Oscar Horovitz, who both crossed a total of 270 crates in 2 minutes.

And for the first time in Lobster Crate Race history, we believe, third place was a three-way tie, with Anja Rand, Jayden Carpenter and Michael Brennan each crossing 243 crates during their 2-minute runs.

The complete results follow:

Lucas Drinkwater - 336 crates, 2 minutes
Britta Denny - 270 crates, 2 minutes
Oscar Horowitz - 270 crates, 2 minutes
Michael Brennan - 243 crates, 2 minutes
Jayden Carpenter - 243 crates, 2 minutes
Anja Rand - 243 crates, 2 minutes
Carrick Lally - 225 crates, 2 minutes
Spencer Michalski - 216 crates, 2 minutes
Destiny Turner - 207 crates, 2 minutes
Matthew Clayton - 189 crates, 2 minutes
Lily Enggass - 176 crates, 126 seconds
Aaron Dowd - 162 crates, 1 minute
Asher Michalski - 132 crates, 1 minute 2 seconds
Ginny Twitchell - 104 crates, 37 seconds
Kiran Farley - 96 crates, 86 seconds
Charlie Laramee - 95 crates, 41 seconds
Quinten Kruger - 95 crates, 47 seconds
Noah Carpenter - 74 crates, 26 seconds
Reilly Turner-Watts - 72 crates, 48 seconds
Lea Zwecker - 68 crates, 22 seconds
Torin Lally - 64 crates, 29 seconds
Caden Dufour - 41 crates
Marta Neidich - 34 crates, 14 seconds
Addison Fienman - 23 crates, 13 seconds
Tim Savard - 16 crates, 9 seconds
Caleb Jiminez - 11 crates, 7 seconds
Lucas Neidich - 9 crates, 8 seconds
Jason Grant - 6 crates, 4 seconds
Ethan Martinez - 6 crates, 5 seconds
Samuel Jiminez - 4 crates, 3 seconds
Freddy Martinez - 4 crates, 2 seconds

 

Sunday, Sept. 4, the fun continues. There will be the Build-a-Boat Race at 11 a.m., where those who spent the day Saturday building their boats out of furnished pairs of boards and plywood and some Sikaflex glue, will test their vessel’s seaworthiness in a race around the dinghy docks at the head of the harbor.

Also Sunday the Pirates of the Dark Rose will participate in a skirmish with local pirates ashore, which will be followed by a chance for the kids to meet and hang out with the scallywags who survive. If you’re swarthy enough, they may even recruit you to join in the battle to protect Camden Harbor and its inhabitants and guests!

The schooners will once again be open for tours, the public landing will be filled with booths, nautical activities and entertainers, and the day wraps up with an All Comers Boat Parade.

For more information and the full schedule, visit Camden Windjammer Festival.