Barbara Dyer: Buttoning up the harbor for winter
Time has come for Camden Harbor to put its boats of all sizes to bed for the soon-to-come winter. Lyman-Morse at Wayfarer has about 40 moorings in the inner and outer harbor that it rents to their yacht owners, besides dock space on the east side of the harbor. Most of the customers go into dry storage for the winter.
The Camden Yacht Club, on the west side, stores its small boats and a racing class, when they have one.
The youngsters learn on the dinghy and for a long time the HAJ was a racing class of sailboats that Carney Anderson went to Finland and purchased for yacht club members. They had a great time racing them for many years back.
The Town of Camden has moorings to rent and usually is a waiting list.
Harbor Master Steve Pixley takes care of these.
He has a special tool to pull them up out of The Deep; he also can service them.
Time was when Avard (Bud) Chater, who was a diver, used to be called to service the moorings. He was kept so busy fixing the broken chains, etc., that he went into the mooring business and had quite a few that he rented and serviced from 1975 to 1984.
There are also town floats near the Public Landing that are rented for small boas and dinghies. The Harbor Master has to remind people that their boats are to be removed by October 15 and the Highway Crew from the town picks up the floats on puts them on dry land.
The Harbor Master is kept extremely busy from early spring until late fall. He then works at the Snow Bowl for the rest of the time.
The Windjammers are so large that they stay in wet storage. They cover their boats with shrink wrap and it is so warm under that, that they can actually work on their boats all winter. Instead of filling up the dump in the spring, Allison McKellar collects the shrink wrap to send to the Syrian refugees for shelter, and that works great.
Camden Harbor, both inner and outer, is so filled with all types and sizes of vessels all summer that it looks as though one could actually walk across the whole harbor from boat to boat.
There is anything from the Mannings, who row every day during the year, to small sail boats and very large sailing yachts, to cruise ships.
Take your choice, if you have plenty of money to maintain them. They say that, "a yacht is a very large and lovely hole that you throw money into."
Who would not want to sail in a harbor, "where the Mountains meet to Sea?"
Barbara F. Dyer has lived in Camden all of her life, so far.
More Barbara Dyer
The day when Camden burned down, 40 buildings lay in ash
Old Glory, the flag’s storied history, and proper etiquette
The Seaside Mountains of Camden
The story of the Barbie D, a little tug that has worked Camden Harbor for 60-plus years
Postcards and the way we communicated 100 years ago
The Babbs: A family integral to Camden history
When Camden paid a fine for having no minister preaching in town
The demise of a Camden-built vessel
Camden’s wooden boat builders were perfectionists
Building wooden boats in Camden, many years ago
Socializing and such, before television
The first years of the Camden Snow Bowl
The many moods of Camden Harbor
Demise of the Camden steamboat wharf
Curtis Island Lighthouse - the sentinel of Camden Harbor
Camden Harbor: As old as the last glacier
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