Here you see the “Grace Bailey,” one of the grand old ladies of the Maine coastal cruiser fleet. She’s coming into hazy Great Cove late Tuesday afternoon to anchor off Babson Island for a nice dinner and some merry folk music. According to her schedule, she’s on a six-night “music + sailing” cruise.
She overnighted in the Cove and got trapped there yesterday in soupy fog and steady rain that caused her to coverup and hunker down:
“Grace” is 118 feet overall and now hails from Camden, Maine. She’s named after the daughter of the original owner, Edwin Bailey, who had her built in 1882 in New York. She was fastened by wooden treenails, as was the custom then, but has gone through several restorations during which her hardware has been updated. But she still has no motor. “Grace” reportedly is one of only four surviving wooden-hulled, two-masted schooners that engaged in the historic northeastern coasting trade.
She served in the coasting trade until 1939, working many of those years under the name “Mattie.” From 1919 to 1939, she did her coastal trading along the Maine coastline, one of the many vessels carrying goods to areas where road access was difficult or impossible. She was rechristened with her original name after restoration for tourist cruising. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 17, 2025.