The schooner American Eagle suffered little damage following her encounter with a ledge Thursday.
The 92-foot long sailing vessel lost “a bit of paint,” but was not damaged. After a coast guard inspection, she was permitted to continue her cruise, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Chuck Chavtur.
The incident caused little problems for the 24 passengers on board, said Shary Fellows, a spokeswoman for the vessel.
She was returning from Boston where she participated in a parade of tall ships, “Sail Boston 2009,” and was sailing through the Townsend Gut when she ran aground, said Fellows.
The incident occurred in a channel that runs between Boothbay Harbor and Southport Island. A swinging bridge, which opens on the half hour, carries State Rt. 27 over “The Gut,” said Hal Mansfield, a bridge tender.
At about 10:11 a.m. she was sailing northeast through “the Gut” waiting for the bridge to open when a puff of wind and the current pushed her out of the channel and on to the rocks near Juniper Point.
“She was going slow, waiting for the bridge when she went hard aground. She was stuck,” said Chief Chavtur.
“We came over to her and stood by for about four hours until she got enough water to float her and the captain backed her off the rocks,” he said.
The American Eagle sailed into Boothbay Harbor where a team of coast guard safety inspectors checked her out. “She was OK. There was no damage except she left a bit of paint on the rocks,” said Chavtur.
The two-masted schooner spent the night in Boothbay Harbor and sailed out Friday morning.
“There was no problem whatsoever,” said Fellows.
The captain, John Foss, said the sensation of grounding was similar to the feeling he gets when she is hauled out of the water in the marine railway, he said.
The American Eagle is a wooden schooner built in 1930. She was a fisherman until 1984 when she was purchased and brought to Rockland where she was rebuilt as a passenger vessel, when she joined Rockland’s passenger schooner fleet.
