Thomaston, Maine: The Hinckley Pilot 35 Association is planning to make mid-coast Maine the destination of their 2018 Cruise. They will gather in Round Pond, Maine on Thursday, July 19th with an opening BBQ kick off. The fleet will sail on Friday through Muscongus Bay to Maple Juice Cove on the St. George River just down river from Lyman-Morse’s Thomaston facility.
On Saturday, the fleet will continue up the river to Lyman-Morse for private tours of the yard and to spend the night dockside. Landcruisers will meet the fleet in Thomaston and celebrate the gathering with dockside cocktails and dinner.
Buzz Billik is organizing the event and expects 15-20 boats with other owners coming by land. “We are very excited to be hosting this group of owners,” said Drew Lyman, president of Lyman-Morse. “They are such a passionate group of sailors and we want to do everything we can to support them.”
Hinckley Pilot 35 owners interested in attending should contact Buzz Billik via email: hinckley35@me.com
A bit of history on this iconic cruiser from Soundings Magazine: It was just after World War II when naval architect K. Aage Nielsen, working for Sparkman & Stephens, produced design No. 539 — a racer-cruiser with an enclosed head and a galley. Called a Pilot according to Rod Stephens, “for the class to lead the way into a revival of postwar yachting.”
In 1955, Maine boatbuilder Henry Hinckley asked S&S to update the 10-year-old Pilot. The result was design No. 1219, known as the Pilot 35. Seven sloops and a yawl were built in wood. In 1962, at Hinckley’s request, the Pilot 35 was redesigned for fiberglass construction. The result was design No. 1727, the boat we know as the Hinckley Pilot 35, built exclusively by Henry R. Hinckley & Co. Of the 117 Hinckley Pilot 35s built, 25 were yawls and the rest sloops.
