ANTIQUE & CLASSIC BOAT RENDEZVOUS
June,
Mystic Seaport, ConnecticutFor more than 35 years, classic boats – both power and sail – have created a brilliant gathering along the waterfront at Mystic Seaport each July for the Museum’s annual Antique & Classic Boat Rendezvous. This fantastic gathering of high-quality antique vessels built before 1965 showcases cruisers, sailboats, runabouts, launches and one very special steamboat, Mystic Seaport’s very own Sabino.
Photo: Mystic Seaport
The classic boats are on display for visitors all day Saturday and Sunday morning. During the weekend, a judged award competition recognizes excellence in restoration, authenticity and workmanship. Midday Sunday, the vessels make their way down a three-mile parade route on the historic Mystic River led by the wooden steamboat Sabino. Each boat is announced on the shore as it passes through Mystic’s famous Bascule Bridge while townspeople and tourists line the parade route to see the boats and their costumed crews.
Built in East Boothbay, Maine, Sabino entered service for the Damariscotta Steamboat Company in 1908. The 57-foot coal-fired steamer spent her days delivering passengers, or “rusticators” to the numerous hotels and boarding houses along the 12 miles of the scenic Damariscotta River.
After a long career on the rivers of Maine and Massachusetts, Sabino was retired, and in 1975 began a new era of passenger service at Mystic Seaport. The significant restoration and meticulous care she received at the Museum was recognized in 1992 when Congress designated Sabino a National Historic Landmark. As one of the only National Historic Landmarks that people can ride on – another example are the historic San Francisco cable cars – Sabino continues to chug away at 102-years-old, offering Mystic Seaport visitors half-hour and 90-minute downriver cruises mid-May through Columbus Day.
What about Mystic Seaport itself? Ask three people and chances are you’ll get three very different answers. To some, it’s a fun family destination, full of exciting attractions. To others, it’s a serious maritime museum and galleries. And to still others, it’s an incredibly valuable education and research center. In fact, it’s all three – located within 19 charming acres on the banks of Connecticut’s legendary Mystic River. A quintessential New England experience, Mystic Seaport offers visitors of all ages a unique link to the nation’s seafaring past and endless, year-round opportunities to immerse themselves in new worlds of hands-on history.
It features a re-created 19th-century seafaring village made up of dozens of real New England buildings staffed with historians, musicians, storytellers and craftspeople who bring our seafaring past to life, from shipsmiths and coopers to woodcarvers and chanteymen; the nation’s leading maritime galleries, brimming with permanent and changing exhibits offering rare glimpses into other eras and cultures, including the acclaimed Voyages: Stories of America and the Sea, restored vessels, figureheads, ship carvings and vintage photography.
It is also one of the world’s only preservation shipyards, where skilled craftspeople employ 19th-century tools and techniques to preserve Mystic Seaport’s unequalled collection of historic wooden ships and boats – as well as build authentic recreations of famous vessels, such as Amistad; historic tall ships and boats such as the Charles W. Morgan, the world’s last surviving wooden whaleship; the Joseph Conrad, a full-rigged 1882 training ship; and the L.A. Dunton, the last-surviving example of early 20th-century New England fishing vessels.
A new, state-of-the-art Collections Research Center houses more than two million examples of maritime art, artifacts, tools, buildings, imprints and other documents, including photographs, 1,000 ships registers, 600 audiotaped oral history interviews, 200 videotaped interviews and 1.5 million feet of historic and contemporary maritime- related footage.
It has the world’s largest collections of boats and maritime photography, including more than 500 different vessels and more than one million historic maritime images; unique educational programs for everyone from preschoolers to graduate students, including overnight programs aboard the Joseph Conrad, courses in 19th-century trades, sail training, undergraduate Maritime Studies programs and fellowships.
A Children’s Museum offers kids seven and under a chance to experience the life of a sailor, including swabbing the deck, moving cargo, cooking in the galley, dressing in sailors’ garb and lying in sailors’ bunks; and a Planetarium gives visitors a lesson in celestial navigation using the stars, planets and heavenly bodies of the season.
For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org.
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