This time of year the Friends of Windjammer Days are fine-tuning and finalizing plans for the festival slated for Sunday, June 26 through Saturday, July 2. This year marks the 60th year of the founding of Windjammer Days by Captains David and Marion Dash.

Given the significance of this anniversary, the Friends came up with a unique way to honor the occasion, the brainchild of FWJD Director Mark Gimbel.

“I started thinking about the founders and how Marion was the first woman to get a captain’s license in Maine. And that led me to think about the women on the waterfront today, so I brought the idea to committee: let’s ask each of our windjammer sponsors to sponsor one of these women.”

The committee members he discussed it with were Kim Gillies, Director Dianne Gimbel and Angie Helton (FWJD publicity person). They all agreed it was one great idea. Helton suggested they call it, quite simply, Women on the Working Waterfront. The four started making a list of the women they knew to nominate, and in sharing the idea with some of the windjammer sponsors, others came to light.

“We wanted to include a few women not from the area, too,” Gimbel said. “So, I contacted Linda Greenlaw to see if she would be interested. Linda said she was honored to be asked. Everyone was, really. And I called Virginia Oliver in Rockland – she’s 101 and still goes out fishing with her son Max. We have 15 women (right now) being honored, their stories are being shared on our website, through windjammer sponsors, and they will be attending a dinner at Linekin Bay Resort during Windjammer week.”

Those Women on the Waterfront, whose contributions run the gamut from dockmaster to ship captain, from the founder of an internationally recognized oceans laboratory to lobster fishers and oyster growers; from island keeper to the president of a ship-building company are: Barbara Scully - Founder/Glidden Point Oyster & owner of Scully Sea Products. Sponsor: Valley Beverage; Elaine Jones - Director/Keepers of Burnt Island Light - Sponsor: Knickerbocker Group; Nikki Strout - Founder/Rugged Seas – Sponsor: Windjammer Emporium; Captain Tiffany Krihwan - Ernestina-Morrissey – Sponsor: Bristol Marine; Captain Terry Arford - Balmy Days – Sponsor: Rugged Seas; Kristin Page – Owner- Atlantic Edge Lobster – Sponsor: Lafayette Group; Captain Heather Hills – Novelty – Sponsor: Boston Beer; Dr. Clarice Yentsch - Founder of Bigelow Laboratories – Sponsor: Downeast Magazine; Katie Maddox -President/Washburn & Doughty - Sponsor: Pine State; Amy Armstrong - Hodgdon Marine dockmaster – Sponsor: Linekin Bay Resort; Audrey Hodgdon - Hodgdon Yachts sixth generation – Sponsor: Suyematsu/Hebert; Pauline Dion - Founder & Director/Sea and Science Center – Sponsor: J. Edward Knight; Linda Greenlaw Wessel - swordfish boat captain/author – Sponsor: Mark/Mariann Powell; Captain Bethany McNelly-Davis / Schooner Alert – Sponsor: Pepsi; Virginia Oliver - 101-year-old lobster fisher of Rockland– Sponsor: First National Bank.

FWJD member Kim Gillies has been busy writing about each of the women, some of their stories are on the official festival website now: www.boothbayharborwindjammerdays.org.

New and permanent changes: The lighted boat parade event has been renamed Harbor Aglow and that’s not the only thing that’s new: decorated docked boats will light up wherever they are around the harbor at 8:30 p.m. with the parade at 9 p.m. and remain lit until 10 p.m. And the Antique Boat Parade will be followed up with a Pier Party at Bristol Marine on Commercial Street. Live music, beverages and food, catered by Chef Ralph Smith of Mine Oyster, will be on June 30 from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40.

When the subject is Windjammer Days, you’ve got to list the reasons for the festival – the windjammer fleet, those visiting and those with the Boothbay Region as home port. FWJD Director Captain Pete Ripley has confirmed these fine vessels, to date, for the festival: Agness And Dell (Blue Hill), Alert (Bailey Island), American Eagle (Rockland), Angelique (Camden), Eastwind (Boothbay Harbor), Ernestina-Morrissey (New Bedford/Boothbay Harbor), Heritage (Rockland), Isabella (Gloucester, MA), Isaac H. Evans (Boothbay Harbor), Jenny Ives (Tenant’s Harbor), Lazy Jack (Boothbay Harbor), Sycamore (Wiscasset), True North (Boston, MA and Pemaquid), Tyrone (Boothbay Harbor).

The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, originally booked for the 2020 Festival, will finally be in Boothbay Harbor. The flagship of Rhode Island, it is the largest civilian Sailing School Vessel in the country. Launched in 2015, she is the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to be built in the U.S. in over 100 years.

The Tug of War Across the Harbor and the Street Parade are back! The Parade takes to the streets on Wednesday, June 29 at 4 p.m., date and time for the Tug TBA.

Plans for Windjammer Days 2022 are well  underway and, as always, stay up-to-date by checking the website and by visiting the Friends of Windjammer Days on Facebook.