Last weekend, we headed by car to Maine’s Mid-Coast for an annual summer cruising rendezvous of old friends. Some sailed to Camden for the event and many arrived by car. We gathered at the Camden Yacht Club that looks out over Camden Harbor. In front of us was a perfect Maine-coast vista, with the pine covered Camden Hills in the background and the inner harbor filled with lovely, classic Maine cruising boats and schooners. There were a handful of modern production sailboats but most were vintage wooden boats or the modern classics by Hinckley, Lyman Morse, Morris and Sabre that make Maine a boat building Mecca. After the party, we drove south to the little harbor at Rockport (pictured) where we wandered around the docks at Rockport Marine. We found a couple of Concordias on the hard having planks replaced, and in the water a Herreshoff Rozinante and many other classics from the past. Its a spectacular little harbor that, like Camden, was filled with beautiful sailing boats. For East Coast sailors, there is no place like Maine to enjoy beautiful scenery, classic sailing boats and that special Downeast culture of fine boat building and the sea. Oh, and they have lobsters there, too.
