Much to our pleasure, we found Grayling moored in Great Cove yesterday morning. She’s the focus of many articles on boat restoration. She was built in 1915 in East Boothbay, Maine, with white oak ribbing, longleaf yellow pine planking, and a cypress pilothouse.
Designed as a double-ended fishing vessel, Grayling fished for mackerel and herring at first, but she became a sardine carrier in 1920. She trucked sardines to and from the cannery for 70 years and then was left to rot. In the 1990s, she was discovered, restored, and converted to a what she is now, a ketch-rigged yacht that sleeps 11. The restoration work was by Brooklin's DN Hylan and Associates (now Hylan and Brown Associates).
She’s long (almost 65 feet overall) and thin (12.5-foot beam), which means she must carry significant ballast (10 tons) to militate against rolling.
She’s definitely not beautiful the way Sophia Loren in her prime was definitely not beautiful. It’s just that you can’t keep your eyes off her. (Brooklin, Maine)