‘She’s a beauty’: Schooners arrive in Wiscasset harbor
Leilani the poodle checks out the Wiscasset waterfront Aug. 19 from her home, the 1939, Wiscasset-built schooner When and If, as it arrives in Wiscasset Aug. 19 for the inaugural Schoonerfest. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson prepares to jump from When and If onto the Wiscasset dock to tie up the 1939, Wiscasset-built schooner after it arrives Aug. 19 for Schoonerfest. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
From left, Ethel Stansfield of Wiscasset and Helen Delano, Kelly Delano and Kelly’s daughter Daisy, 12, all of Westport Island watch the schooners come into Wiscasset harbor Aug. 19 for Schoonerfest. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset’s Lisa Truesdell and son Miles, 7, watch the When and If arrive. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alna-built Sycamore arrives. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Mary Bowers of Alna with Toggle at Wiscasset Yacht Club, after their arrival Aug. 19 on the Sycamore, the schooner Bowers’ husband Fred built. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
When and If crew member Molly Merwin. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alna’s Fred Bowers with his vessel Sycamore. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Boothbay’s Alan Boyes, on his and wife Judy’s Pagan Moon, waits to head out to give When and If a cannon salute. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Ann Scanlan captures the schooners’ arrival. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset’s Marty Fox and grandson Asa Burchstead, 8, watch the schooners enter Wiscasset harbor Aug. 19. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset Reserve Officer Emily Christiansen on the waterfront. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Schoonerfest co-chair Jorge Pena. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson from Minnesota and the When and If helps dock it in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset’s Steve and Jan Whitfield watch for When and If. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Fred Bowers mans the boat he built over 16 years, the Sycamore. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alan Boyes on his vessel Pagan Moon. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson from Minnesota and When and If helps dock it in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Water Street Kitchen & Bar General Manager Shane McCarthy talks with Schoonerfest’s Terry Heller about the beer and wine garden the restaurant was setting up for the festival. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
William Horstmann IV, 4, of Winnetka, Illinois with William Horstmann III. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson from Minnesota serves on When and If’s crew. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Jan Flowers and Schoonerfest co-chair Peter Wells. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
When and If crew member Sean Salzmann. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Jack Maher of the When and If crew. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alna’s Fred, Mary and Toggle Bowers arrive with schooner Sycamore. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Dan Watts aboard Pagan Moon. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Leilani the poodle checks out the Wiscasset waterfront Aug. 19 from her home, the 1939, Wiscasset-built schooner When and If, as it arrives in Wiscasset Aug. 19 for the inaugural Schoonerfest. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson prepares to jump from When and If onto the Wiscasset dock to tie up the 1939, Wiscasset-built schooner after it arrives Aug. 19 for Schoonerfest. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
From left, Ethel Stansfield of Wiscasset and Helen Delano, Kelly Delano and Kelly’s daughter Daisy, 12, all of Westport Island watch the schooners come into Wiscasset harbor Aug. 19 for Schoonerfest. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset’s Lisa Truesdell and son Miles, 7, watch the When and If arrive. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alna-built Sycamore arrives. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Mary Bowers of Alna with Toggle at Wiscasset Yacht Club, after their arrival Aug. 19 on the Sycamore, the schooner Bowers’ husband Fred built. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
When and If crew member Molly Merwin. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alna’s Fred Bowers with his vessel Sycamore. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Boothbay’s Alan Boyes, on his and wife Judy’s Pagan Moon, waits to head out to give When and If a cannon salute. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Ann Scanlan captures the schooners’ arrival. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset’s Marty Fox and grandson Asa Burchstead, 8, watch the schooners enter Wiscasset harbor Aug. 19. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset Reserve Officer Emily Christiansen on the waterfront. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Schoonerfest co-chair Jorge Pena. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson from Minnesota and the When and If helps dock it in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset’s Steve and Jan Whitfield watch for When and If. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Fred Bowers mans the boat he built over 16 years, the Sycamore. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alan Boyes on his vessel Pagan Moon. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson from Minnesota and When and If helps dock it in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Water Street Kitchen & Bar General Manager Shane McCarthy talks with Schoonerfest’s Terry Heller about the beer and wine garden the restaurant was setting up for the festival. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
William Horstmann IV, 4, of Winnetka, Illinois with William Horstmann III. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Sidney Anderson from Minnesota serves on When and If’s crew. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Jan Flowers and Schoonerfest co-chair Peter Wells. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
When and If crew member Sean Salzmann. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Jack Maher of the When and If crew. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Alna’s Fred, Mary and Toggle Bowers arrive with schooner Sycamore. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Dan Watts aboard Pagan Moon. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
The when moved from 9 to 10 Thursday morning, but there were no if’s about General George Patton’s schooner When and If’s arrival, and later the Sycamore’s, with the Alna man who built it from 2001 to 2016, Fred Bowers. Wife Mary and their rat terrier Toggle accompanied him as Sycamore joined in the inaugural Schoonerfest.
Shouts and claps broke out in Wiscasset harbor when, across the Sheepscot River, the first vessel, Wiscasset-built When and If, appeared. “It’s getting bigger every minute,” Wiscasset’s Ethel Stanfield said.
“She’s a beauty,” Sarah Emery said. She used to see the 1939 schooner daily when she lived in its summer port, Salem, Massachusetts. Thursday, Emery, now a Federal Street resident, watched When and If return for a visit to its hometown, now her town.
While Sycamore had the Bowers’ terrier, When and If had crew member Sean Salzmann’s poodle Leilani aboard, looking out from the boat as the crew docked the vessel with help from locals.
Minnesota-raised Sidney Anderson got a job on a boat in Key West, sailed about three years, then went to work on When and If last year. “It is my house and my job, so the commute is really quick.” Crew mate Jack Maher from Alexandria, Virginia thought he might go looking for a lobster roll.
What did Wiscasset’s Miles Truesdell, 7, think of the cannon salute? “Amazing.”
And what did fellow resident Dan Watts, who fired one of the cannons aboard Alan Boyes’ Pagan Moon, think? “Loud! We had earplugs,” he said, smiling. Earlier, Boyes, of Barters Island, Boothbay, explained it was “a proper salute for the When and If. She’s a beautiful boat. She deserves a salute.” The Sycamore later got one.
Dozens of onlookers – from Schoonerfest volunteers to locals and out-of-state visitors like William Horstmann IV, 4, of Winnetka, Illinois in a captain’s hat William Horstmann III said his son picked out in Boothbay – saw the vessels arrive. Schoonerfest’s Terry Heller said more might have come, had the arrival time and the weather been certain sooner. The morning turned out sticky and partly sunny after a forecast of possible showers. “But you know what? This is Maine, so we take whatever it is” and enjoy it, she said.
Water Street Kitchen & Bar General Manager Shane McCarthy talked with Heller about the beer and wine garden the restaurant was setting up for the festival. McCarthy said Schoonerfest is a good use of what he considers an under-used harbor, and he would like to see more events. He said it might be hard to tell if Schoonerfest gives the restaurant a bump in business, though. It has already been “crazy” busy this summer, he explained.
The festival runs through Sunday. Visit wiscassetschoonerfest.com
