Camden Windjammer Festival...Labor Day weekend

A lot of finesse and a little power moved 16 schooners into Camden Harbor Friday

Tons of activities in and around Camden Harbor all weekend!
Fri, 09/02/2016 - 9:15pm

Story Location:
5 Public Landing
Camden, ME 04843
United States

    CAMDEN — For many years sailing, Labor Day weekend in Camden has been a time for celebrating the town’s and the region’s rich nautical heritage. The annual Camden Windjammer Festival brings in boat builders and craftsmen, historians and artists, cooks who bake in wood-fired ovens and forgers who pound iron into useful tools. But nothing is as special on the first day of the celebration as the arrival of the windjammer fleet, some historic landmarks, most refitted, some totally rebuilt from stem to stern.

    According to Camden Harbormaster Steve Pixley, at least 16 schooners — some of the biggest and oldest in the fleet — were expected to come into the harbor throughout the day Friday, Sept. 2, and he would be the man in charge of figuring out where to put them all.

    Maneuvering a powerful hard-bottom inflatable go-fast boat around the harbor, while juggling two VHF radios and a cell phone, Pixley alternated between communicating with incoming captains and with his staff back on the docks waiting to catch lines, tie some off and cast others away.

    In addition to each of the schooner’s own yawl boats, Pixley had a solid group of nearly half a dozen volunteers in their own small boats, ready to nudge a bow or push midship to maneuver the big vessels down and around the head of the harbor. Once there, the majority were then slowed as they rounded the “corner” and then were urged backward into their berth, so their stern faced Mt. Battie in the distance.

    With so many schooners on the dock, it’s the way most need to be positioned because of their long bowsprits, which would overhang the dock and/or run across the decks of the vessels behind them, tied up alongside the back of the dock.

    All but two of the big vessels, those being the three-masted U.S. National Historic Landmark Victory Chimes, home port Rockland, and the Camden day sailing schooner, Appledore II, were bound for berths at the head of the harbor. The Victory Chimes and Appledore II were spending the night on the town side of the dock, near Waterfront Restaurant. The other schooners will either spend the night tied to the town docks or rafted together at the docks’ end.

    The schooners Mary Day and Angelique, home port Camden,also returned from their most recent multi-day sailing trips and eventually made their way to the head of the harbor Friday afternoon, tying up at their berths between Camden Harbor Park and the Cannell Boat Building on Atlantic Avenue.

    Many of the schooners will be departing in the mornings for more sailing, but there will be schooner open houses on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 3-4, from 2 to 4 p.m. Climb aboard, peek around, tour their galleys and find out what it would be like to spend some time sailing on one of these majestic vessels.

    And of course there is a full schedules of events over the next two days, including a pancake breakfast, chowder challenge, displays of traditions and crafts, crate races, the Nautical Dog Show, the Build-a-Boat competition, music, kayak trips to Curtis Island, a visit by pirates, the First Fish Relay and much more. Check out the links below for full schedules and all the information you need.

    To learn about each of the windjammers and schooners in the fleet, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

    For more information about the 2016 Camden Windjammer Festival, click here or click here.