Here you see one of the most publicized Maine-built vessels emerging from the fog in Great Cove on Saturday. Significant restoration hides her hard life and age. She’s the renowned yacht “Grayling.”
She was built in 1915 in East Boothbay, Maine, as a double-ended (two-“bowed”) fishing vessel with a distinctive cypress pilothouse. She seine-netted mackerel and herring at first (hence the double-ended design), and then became a sardine carrier in 1920. She trucked sardines to and from canneries for 70 years and then, when her useful life was thought to be at an end, she was “put on the hard” and, basically, left to rot.
She was rediscovered and restored for a client in 1997 by Doug Hylan, a Brooklin, Maine, boatbuilder. The result was this distinctive, ketch-rigged yacht that sleeps 11. She’s long (almost 65 feet overall) and thin (12.5-foot beam), which means she must carry significant ballast (10 tons) and use her staysail to help avoid excessive rolling.
By the way, as you may know, a grayling is an attractive freshwater fish in the salmon family that prefers very cold water. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 17, 2024.)