Tall ship events at Maine ports will help kick off bicentennial, a year later
Courtesy / Maine Bicentennial Commission
Tall ship visits to Maine ports are being folded into this year’s rescheduled bicentennial events.
Scheduling is in the works for a “four-port loop” of tall ship visits to Bangor, Bucksport, Searsport and Castine this July, as part of a reboot of the Maine bicentennial events canceled last year.
The loop, sponsored by the Penobscot Maritime Heritage Association, is expected to feature visits from vessels such as Maine Maritime Academy’s schooner Bowdoin and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Abbie Burgess. Also planned are historical presentations and exhibits, including the 25-foot, 5,000-pound boat that was printed in 3D at the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, in Orono.
“We’ve been planning for this since January,” Richard Campbell, a member of the association’s board of directors and a former state legislator, told the Bucksport Town Council at its virtual meeting last week.
The association plans to make Bucksport the hub of the loop, which was initially planned for 2020, he added.
“What we’ve tried to do, with the advice of local businesses in Bucksport, is to move the activity as quickly onto Main Street as possible, to have the Main Street businesses benefit,” Campbell said.
The nonprofit association was founded last year and received a $10,000 Maine Office of Tourism grant to help produce the circuit for the bicentennial.
The goal is to focus attention on Maine’s maritime heritage in Penobscot basin communities. Events will coordinate with Searsport festivities to celebrate its own 175th birthday.
“On or around July 9, the fleet of participating ships will muster off Searsport and begin their journey upriver to Bucksport, Winterport, Brewer and Bangor and across the bay to Castine,” according to the association’s website.
The loop is sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank.
“One thing we’d like to do as an organization is make this more than a one-time event, maybe try to do it annually,” Campbell said. “There’s so much to promote in this region. One of the main missions of the bicentennial commission is to move tourism into central and eastern Maine.”
“I’m really excited about this,” said one town councilor. “It’s perfect for what we have here and this whole area.”
The loop is one of several sailing festivals on the Maine Bicentennial Commission's calendar this summer. The Boothbay Harbor Windjammer Days and Tall Ships Festival is listed, along with the Friendship Sloop Society Homecoming Regatta in Rockland. Friendship sloops were designed and built in Maine and served as one of the first lobstering and fishing boats.
Each festival features land activities and dockside access for the public.
According to the commission’s website, most bicentennial events originally scheduled for 2020 are now being rescheduled for this summer and fall, including a Bicentennial Time Capsule ceremony, an innovation expo, and a State of Maine Bicentennial Parade.
For more information, click here.
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