You really don’t need a special time to cruise to Rockland, Maine, because it’s one of the most interesting spots up there. But if you do need an extra reason to go to Rockland, the annual Maine Boats & Homes Show starts there on Friday, August 9, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 11, in Harbor Park right in town.
With its offbeat mix of Down East boats, dogs, straw-hat musicians and totally laid-back vibes, the Rockland show is in a class by itself. For boats, it usually has most of the area’s favorites, including Hinckley and Hunt (its sister company), Sabre and Back Cove (its sister company, with its factory just down the road in Thomaston), Wilbur, Lyman-Morse (with its yard on the waterfront in Thomaston), Front Street Shipyard, MJM and many others.
The show also has its own specialties, including the “World Championship Boatyard Dog Trials,” where basically dogs jump in the water to fetch a frisbee on Sunday morning, more than 100 exhibits on tents on land, with everything from new marine electronics to furniture and paintings, and visits by historic vessels – a 59-foot steamship on Friday and a 1897 tugboat (the longest-serving tug in the United States) on Saturday and Sunday.
The show is fun, in its own way, but Rockland, a classic Maine coastal town, with its beautiful harbor, almost mile-long breakwater, world-class art museums and local galleries, boutiques, restaurants and boatyards, is well worth a visit any time. It calls itself the art capital of Maine, as well as the lobster capital of the world, both with good reason.
A block off Main Street, the Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center and the Center for Contemporary Art will lift your spirits and give you many hours, or more, of inspiration and enjoyment. Rockland even has an upscale “art hotel” created by Cabot Lyman, of Lyman-Morse, called 250 Main. It’s a 26-room boutique hotel almost across the street from the harbor master’s office, and it offers terrific views of Penobscot Bay. Opened just three years ago, the hotel also has museum-quality works by local artists on every floor.
When you’re through looking at paintings, you can check out the Maine Lighthouse Museum, almost next door to the show, book a ride on a windjammer (there are more windjammers in Rockland than anyplace else in the world), take a ferry ride to the offshore islands, or stretch your legs with a walk down the breakwater to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. Better yet, cruise over to the lighthouse, built in 1902, on your own boat; I did that three summers ago on a then-new Back Cove 32.
You can eat seafood at a number of restaurants in town, including many overlooking the water. And order fresh lobster; Rockland is one of the world’s largest lobster shipping centers. If you want a treat, make a reservation and go to Primo at 2 Main Street on the edge of town. It’s an upscale Italian restaurant in a Victorian home with a beautiful garden and the food is great; the chef has a James Beard award. Read more:
https://maineboats.com/boatshow
