The 53rd annual Windjammer Days Festival is just a few months away. Work behind the scenes is intensifying for the Friends of Windjammer Days.

“As the festival dates get closer and closer we are making sure everything hits and happens,” said Friends of Windjammer Days board member Andy Luke at the group’s April 14 meeting.

Confirmed schooners include Alert, Bowdoin, Ernestina-Morrissey, Eastwind, Heritage, American Eagle and the Lazy Jack.

Confirmed entertainment, thanks to Paul “Entertainment Guy” Johnson, includes Pat Colwell and the Soul Sensations, Jason Spooner Band, Dyer Neck Gang, Boothbay Region Community Band, Barefoot, Rick Turcotte & the Richochettes, Amber Jones and Paul Johnson, Y-Arts Kids, The Boneheads with Douglas Gimbel, and more to come. New this year is a family contra dance with music by Barefoot.

Post meeting, board member Pete Ripley announced via email that the grand prize in this year’s raffle is a 3-4 day trip for two aboard the Lewis R. French!

Sponsor-speak

Mark Gimbel reported new sponsors are on board: Yale Cordage, owned by Tom and Deborah Yale, is sponsoring the Schooner Bowdoin and co-sponsoring the first ever Tug of War (across the harbor) event with Federal Distributors.

Returning sponsors: Pine State Trading (American Eagle), Maine Magazine (Lazy Jack), Pepsi (Alert), J. Edward Knight (Ernestina-Morrissey), the Giles family (Heritage), Knickerbocker Group (Eastwind), Vacation Rentals Made Easy (parade).

The clambake at Cabbage Island, held for the Windjammer captains, their crew and passengers, is being sponsored by Nat Wilson of Nathaniel Wilson Sailmaker.

The Lafayette Group in Boothbay Harbor  (Fisherman’s Wharf, Boothbay Harbor Inn and Tugboat Inn) is sponsoring the Pirates of the Dark Rose once again.

Other returning sponsors include Central Distributors, Rocktide Inn and Restaurant, Getagadget, Tindal & Callahan Real Estate and Cabbage Island Clambakes.

Gimbel also reported The American Schooner Association (ASA) has been welcomed aboard as a festival sponsor.

“It's the beginning of a relationship we hope will last a long time,” Gimbel said.

Ripley added the ASA would be working on getting some of their ships to attend Windjammer Days in the future.

For more on the ASA and its mission, visit www.amschooner.org.

The full list of sponsors can be viewed at www.windjammerdays.org. The list will also appear in the Boothbay Register's Windjammer Days publication.

Subcommittee updates

Kim Gillies, co-chair of the Lighted Boat Parade event with Sarah Morley, announced LincolnHealth as the sponsor of this new event for Windjammer Days. Gillies said Grover's Hardware will have LED lights for sale for boat owners/captains decorating their vessels for this inaugural festival event.

Speaking of lights, Boothbay Harbor's 1,000-foot footbridge will be lit and decorated for Windjammer Days week, thanks to Rowe sisters Nancy and Susan.

Tug of War

Plans are being finalized for the first ever Tug of War across the harbor here in Boothbay Harbor. Mark Gimbel announced that the event would be limited to six pulls by 12 teams comprised of 10-12 people. USCG in West Boothbay Harbor will have a team and Gimbel said there are three others already.

Tom Yale of Yale Cordage shared how the event, known as “slaughter across the water,” is handled in Annapolis, Maryland across the Spa Creek section of the Severn River: they using 1,700 feet of rope! In Maryland, it is a 17-year annual fundraising event that has raised half a million dollars.

Yale described the logistics for the Windjammer Days Tug: the 1,200 feet of rope will float atop of the water. Extending from loops attached to a becket, positioned in the water at the center of the designated pull zone, will be two lines in each direction.

The becket will be moored to a couple of blocks that will have two other lines attached, which will have a helium-filled balloon (representing each team) rising skyward, one from each line, so all spectators can see how the tugs are going. Yale said the tugs in MD, at the most, take 2.5 minutes.

Communication will be key during this event. The committee will be brainstorming on the best way to ensure all team members can hear the start and stop calls and any other information during each tug. Ideas at the meeting: the judge would be in a boat at the center of the distance between each team, the use of a PA system.

Yale also advised that the line/rope must be perfectly straight.

“If either end is at an angle, the people in the front of the tug line will get knocked over,” Yale said.

Carnival

A WJD carnival? Looks like that's a go. At the March meeting, Jason Schlosser inquired about whether Friends of Windjammer Days were interested in adding a carnival to the festivities — particularly on one of the “quieter” days of the week-long event. Schlosser agreed to check on the availability of the school grounds as the venue.

Schlosser contacted Smokey's Greater Shows, recommended by Scott Larson. Smokey's carnivals are used at the Fryeburg Fair, Rockland's Lobster Fest and other Maine events. This company also donates 20 percent of all ticket sales back to the organization that books them.

By the April 14 Friends of Windjammer Days meeting, the Community School District Board of Trustees had approved the grounds for the carnival with a stipulation. All heavy rides and/or equipment has to be kept off of the fields to protect them from damage.

The former tennis courts and the student parking lot on Route 27 were suggested as possible locations.

The Friends of Windjammer Days approved the time frame of Thursday through Saturday of Windjammer week for a carnival with its own stipulation: setup for the Thursday carnival would have to wait until the street parade was over. Many of the Kora groups set up in the student parking lot, and line up for the parade takes place on the school grounds, particularly in the high school and elementary school parking areas.

The carnival company rep will be meeting with Facilities Director Dave Benner and CSD Trustee Chris Buchanan and Schlosser to walk the field in the very near future.

Event updates

Doug Goldhirsch and Bruce White, co-organizers of the Antique Boat Parade, are all set thus far. They report the Rocktide Inn will be holding a reception for the captains, crews and all spectators of the parade immediately following the event. Appetizers will be served and a cash bar will be available.

Pete Ripley has been in touch with the owners of the Ernestina-Morrissey, now at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard. Ripley said plans are in the works to schedule educational tours aboard the tall ship during the festival. Times and dates to be announced. If this comes to pass, festival goers will have two ships to tour, the other being the Bowdoin. Tours of the Bowdoin are scheduled for Wednesday, June 24 between 3 and 6 p.m.

Street Parade

Floats are still being sought for the Street Parade, a celebration of the Boothbay region and all of the people, businesses, attractions and arts that make it the great place it is to live. Applications can be downloaded from the official festival website, www.windjammerdays.org/WJD-events-forms.html or picked up at the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce office (next to Hannaford).

This year's Grand Marshal for the Street Parade is Boothbay Harbor native Arthur Webster, musician and co-owner of Orne’s Candy Store.

The Friends are looking for volunteers to create its float for the parade this year — and will provide the funds necessary. Next year, the group’s mobile schooner (think L.L. Bean Boot) will be ready for the Windjammer Days parade.

But, until then, all creative types are encouraged to contact the Friends of Windjammer Days via its Facebook page or via www.windjammerdays.org.

The Friends of Windjammer Days will meet twice next month: May 12 at the Boathouse Bistro and May 26 at Mine Oyster.

Friends of Windjammer Days is a 501c3 community organization that hosts the Windjammer Days Festival in the Boothbay region.