The Victory Chimes during the July 2022 45th annual Great Schooner Race. Photo by Ken Waltz

ROCKLAND — The historic wooden schooner Victory Chimes, which hails out of Rockland, was sold at auction this week to two brothers who have converted other old sailing ships into restaurants.

The 128-foot-long schooner, which was celebrated on the 2003 commemorative Maine state quarter, was sold in an online auction by Keenan Auction Co. of Portland for $75,900, the auction company said.

Owner and captain Sam Sikkema said the title has not yet been transferred but confirmed the new owners will be Miles and Alex Pincus.

Sikkema said the new owners have not said what they plan to do with the vessel but the brothers own and operate other vessels as restaurants in the New York City area through the company Crewny. Two of the vessel/restaurants are the Pilot, now a seasonal oyster bar, and Grand Banks, formerly named the Sherman Zwicker. The Pincuses could not be reached Wednesday.

The Victory Chimes is docked at the Maritime Traditions wharf at the end of Captain Spear Drive in Rockland, but it must be moved by May 15.

Built in 1900, Victory Chimes has sailed the Maine coast since 1954 as a windjammer taking paying guests on pleasure cruises. The three-masted schooner has 21 cabins and can accommodate 43 passengers.

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The ship was originally among 4,000 such cargo ships launched in Bethel, Delaware. Then named Edwin & Maud, it hauled cargo in the Chesapeake Bay until 1946 and then was converted to the passenger trade. The ship is the last of those former cargo schooners still sailing, Sikkema said in a statement.

In 1987, Tom Monaghan, then owner of Domino’s Pizza and the Detroit Tigers major league baseball team, purchased the vessel and put it through an extensive restoration at the former Samples Shipyard in Boothbay (now the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard). In 1989, Domino’s put the infrequently used vessel – then named the Domino Effect – up for sale. The only interested party at the time had plans to ship the schooner to Japan and convert it into a sushi restaurant.

Kip Files and Paul DeGaeta stepped forward and purchased Victory Chimes in 1990 and returned it to the Maine windjammer trade. This prompted the Maine Legislature to bestow on it the honor of “Official Windjammer of the state of Maine.”

Sikkema purchased Victory Chimes in 2018. He also owns the Grace Bailey. He announced last August that the ship’s long sailing career in Maine would end in October.

“After long and careful consideration we have come to the difficult decision that 2022 will be Victory Chimes last sailing season,” he said at the time. “Upcoming Coast Guard compliance, cost and availability of materials for upcoming maintenance, the lack of ability to haul the ship in Maine and the losses of the 2020 season have all become a hill too big to climb.”


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