Hello, and welcome to the pages of the Friendship Sloop Society. This year marks our 65th Anniversary!
Beginning in 1961, and for the first 25 years or so, we gathered in Friendship Harbor where these sloop boats originally came into being in the 1880s to accommodate the growing rusticator demand for lobsters living in shallow shores. Sloop attendance in the regatta steadily grew from a dozen or so to over 50 sloops at the starting line out in Muscongus Bay in the 1970s! My childhood eyes certainly witnessed a lot of bowsprits swinging tightly around those marks! Ultimately, this large fleet crowded the working harbor so we moved to Boothbay Harbor for several years, landing here in Rockland 31 years ago. While we have grown in membership over the years, we now see between 15-20 sloops at the annual regatta. Excitedly, we’ve seen some old friends return to the races and we again welcome their competitive participation.
This year marks a move within Rockland to new dock space at the Landings Marina, with parking and new amenities – a mere 5-minute walk from the Public Landing and Harbor Park. Come see us, visit our original working sloops (built 1880-1920) and the newer-built recreational models in both wood and fiberglass, and look over our chandlery for hats, T-shirts and more! As much as racing, we enjoy showing off our Friendships dockside with old friends and new acquaintances and in exhibiting our love affair with these native Maine sloops!
Kathe Newman Walton
Commodore
1965 Old Baldy, Sail #57
