Here you see a sleeping beauty wearing nothing but her rigging in the still waters of Great Cove. She has the sultry name of ANGELIQUE, but not for the reasons that most might think.
It was Sunday morning and ANGELIQUE was at rest while her passengers and some of her crew were ashore, touring the renowned WoodenBoat Publications and School campus. She was on a four-night “Grandparents & Grandkids” cruise, according to her schedule.
ANGELIQUE left the Cove under full sail. Those tan-bark-colored sails and her top-sailed, ketch configuration make her one of the most recognizable of the Maine windjammer coastal cruisers. She’s also relatively large at 130 feet in overall length (95’ deck length), with 15 double-occupancy (albeit not large) guest cabins.
Here’s the whole story. The day began with sighting ANGELIQUE from the house early in the morning. I soon went down to the Cove to take mages nof her before she raised sails and departed:
Her passengers (apparently mostly grandparents and grandchildren) eventually returned to the vessel in two trips of one of her longboats. After they climbed aboard, the longboat was raised on its davit and preparations were made to raise sails.
Then, the passengers and crew raised sails. First they raised the aft sail and its topsail, then the mainsail and its topsail, as ANGELIQUE turned to get into the wind. As she picked up cruising speed in a following wind, she flared her aft sail and raised her three jibs one at a time. Under full sail, she entered into Eggemoggin Reach and was gone.
Some Basic Facts:
ANGELIQUE was designed by Imero Gabbato of Camden, Maine, specifically to be a Maine coastal cruiser, but with a steel-compartmentalized hull. She was built in 1980 in Palatka, Florida, at a shipyard that specializes in such hulls. Some say she was designed to resemble a 19th century English fishing trawler, but the original owner denied that in a report. Whether intended or not, there is a nice resemblance.
She homeports in Camden, where she touts her amenities to potential passengers. These include three heads (small bathrooms); three hot fresh-water showers below deck and one on deck; two auxiliary inboard diesel engines and that steel-plated and framed hull for safety and durability.
She was not named ANGELIQUE after some sultry femme fatale, as I hoped was the case. She was named in honor of Angelique, a beautiful hardwood from French Guiana and Suriname, according to a video interview of her wood-loving original owner. Apparently, some of this hardwood is displayed in ANGELIQUE’S main cabin.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 26, 2026.)