Wendameen gives a taste of sailing> overnight cruise a way to test the water

Among the family of windjammers along the Maine coast, Captain Neal Parker thinks of his 67-foot historic schooner, Wendameen, as “the sailing bed and breakfast.”

Parker offers overnight trips on the gleaming sailing yacht, as opposed to the Monday-Saturday trips on the Camden and Rockland windjammers.

“We are sort of the `Whitman Sampler’ of sailing,” said Parker, referring to the candy assortment.

At a cost of $143 per customer, the Wendameen leaves Rockland’s North End Shipyard at 2 p.m. for the Fox islands and an overnight anchor, with a return trip by 10 a.m. the following day.

Some people are a little leery of a week at sea and want “a taste” to see if they like it, the captain said.

“We get a lot of people from the Midwest who want to try an overnight before they go out for a week,” he said. The customers are a delightful mix, from dental hygienists to surgeons to account executives.

The overnight sail has been a big favorite of both divorced and married people. Divorced parents off for a weekend with children, looking for something to do, have adopted the vessel. It also is a big favorite for couples looking for a perfect place to get married away from their meddling families.

Parker has already done a half-dozen weddings at sea with the other guests serving as witnesses.

The fare on board is “good, healthy food,” with breads and desserts baked during the sail.

The sailing business had a spotty June, which Parker attributed to the increase in interest rates. The lower the rates, the higher the disposable income, the Parker Theory of Sailing goes. But the trips are building up from six customers a trip in June to 10 in July, with a healthy August already booked. September, the best month for sailing, has yet to be discovered.

Parker limits advertising to Down East Magazine and area chambers of commerce, but says his best ally is word of mouth from his happy customers.

“We are already starting to see repeat business” after five years on Penobscot Bay, he said.

The Wendameen has survived some stormy times to get into the National Register.

It was launched from an East Boothbay boatyard on July 1, 1912 for millionaire Chester W. Bliss, owner of the Boston and Albany Railroad and member of the New York Yacht Club. The boat was used as a “hunting lodge” for Bliss’s rich friends who visited Long Island.

In 1916, it was sold to the Uihlein family in Chicago, who spent the Roaring Twenties sailing with friends, including the beer families of Schlitz, Pabst and Schaefer. Then the schooner was sold to lawyer Paul L. Amoreaux, who was rumored to have a nodding acquaintance with a businessman named Alphonse “Scarface” Capone.

Broker Gerald Ford started, but never finished restoration, and the once-gleaming hull was under tarps in Connecticut from 1933 to 1986.

Parker found what was left of the proud sailing vessel on July 1, 1986, exactly 74 years to the day after it was launched, on a Connecticut mud bank. He patched her up and sailed her to Camden, where he planned on a total restoration.

When the Camden harbor master saw the discolored, patchwork hull, he called the U.S. Coast Guard. “The town was in an uproar,” Parker recalled.

Parker exacts his revenge each year by beating the sails off the bigger windjammers in the Great Schooner Race.

The Parker Theory of Sailing also holds that the Wendameen has 53 years of idle time to make up for.