THOMASTON — With a tumultuous thunderstorm looming down from the northeast, it was quick, yet celebratory, business easing Ladona into the St. George River July 24. She went in like a charm, and the soft launch of the former Nathaniel Bowditch was marked by champagne, and many admiring glances of this one-time yacht, whose sheerline had been smoothed back to her original shape at Lyman-Morse boatyard, in Thomaston.

“My God, there’s a million details, but she is going to look really, really good,” said Noah Barnes, talking by phone several days later from a cove near North Haven. He and his wife, Jane, were aboard their other windjammer, the Stephen Taber, on a regular summer cruise.

The Ladona’s original lines had not only been restored this past spring, but her entire hull, her keelson, transom, horn timber, deck — pretty much the entire boat — has, or is, in the process of, of getting refurbished.

“We thought originally she might require a 45 to 50 percent rebuild,” said Barnes. “But, many of the planks and pieces were pretty rotten. We had to make a hard decision: Do we leave a piece of wood in there that might have to be replaced in seven to 10 years?”

As the Barnes talked, and estimated, and projected, the decision became evident.

“At the end of the day the most important thing was to save the vessel,” said Noah.

The Ladona is a familiar sight on Penobscot Bay, having become integral to the Midcoast windjammer fleet in 1971. That’s when Roger Brainerd, of Union, and Carl Chase, of Brooksville, teamed up in 1971 to pull her from a dead-end career in the Connecticut fishing fleet.

She is a vessel with an illustrious life. Built in 1922 as a yacht at Hodgdon Yard in East Boothbay for a well-heeled family, she initially was a fair weather racer. So swift under sail, the 82-foot gaff-rigged schooner came in first in her class in the 1923 Bermuda Cup race.

She was originally named Ladona (meaning, the Lady) by her first owner, Homer Loring, in honor of the gunboat his father had sailed aboard during the Civil War.

Then, Ladona was commissioned by the U.S. Navy during World War II an sailed as a German submarine patrol vessel stationed in New York Harbor. After that, she was renamed the Jane Doré and was used as a dragger off of Stonington, Connecticut.

Brainerd and Chase found her there, and turned the Ladona-Jane Doré into a sail-training schooner, renaming her the Nathaniel Bowditch, after the highly-regarded mathematician born in Salem, Mass., and who is considered the pillar of modern maritime navigation.

Brainerd and Chase brought the schooner back to Maine. In 1975, Gib Philbrick purchased her, and sailed the vessel for decades as a windjammer. Somewhere in those years, Skip Hawkins owned her, and then Owen and Cathy Dorr purchased her, keeping her in the Penobscot Bay windjammer fleet — good stewards, all of her captains, said Barnes.

Last year, her ownership was transferred again, this time to the Barnes.

Their plans are to move her back to Lermond Cove in Rockland, where they keep the Taber, and begin working on the deck and refitting cabins.

Almost 90 percent of her frames and planking were replaced at Lyman Morse, and her lines tweeked.

Not only did they try to dig up her original William Hand design plans, they consulted with naval architect Matt Smith, in Rhode Island, to help reshape the Ledona.

“She had hogged [bow and stern were lower than the middle section], pulled up at the chain plates [where the rigging is attached to the hull], and there was a weird little bump at the stern,” said Barnes. “She didn’t have a sweet sheer line. We did our best to improve her.”

That included referencing original Hand designs of the boat.

“William Hand knew what he was doing,” said Barnes.

But, many of the Hand designs, including those of the Ladona, had been destroyed during the 1938 hurricane that hit the East Coast. So, Noah and Jane worked off the original photo of the Ladona at her Boothbay launching. 

Then, they ordered many thousands of board feet of new lumber — white oak, black locust, and the coveted long leaf yellow pine. The pine has been reclaimed from warehouses and factories built throughout North America during the Industrial Revolution, and earns a good penny. Mostly extinct, the long leaf yellow pine is considered “incredibly durable,” said Barnes. It is resinous with thick pine tar, and “virtually rot-proof.”

The Barnes are not only rebuilding the schooner, they are fitting her for a different type of windjammer cruise, with the intention of making it a profitable venture. The rebuild is a major investment, said Noah, hovering somewhere, “south of $1 million.”

“We are funding this privately,” he said. “We have put up just about everyone we own. We run a really nice business, in a way that makes sense for us.”

He has also been in the schooner business long enough to know how a boat, especially old wooden vessels, leak dollars. Which is why they are upping the cruise rates and adding more creature comforts.

“We are hoping this is a proof point for this business,” he said.

The Ladona experience is to be, according to the Barnes’ website: “an authentic Maine Windjammer experience while paying careful attention to modern amenities and comfort.”

It will be slightly more upscale, and a bit more comfortable, he said.

The Ladona, “reflects our appreciation for an exclusive, vintage-style cruising experience,” the Barnes write, at the site, adding that they have “designed Ladona for discerning tastes.”

There is room for 16 guests in cabins of different sizes. There will be three showers, four heads, hot and cold running water in cabins and heads, and seated dining. The experience, they said, will provide, “a personally curated vacation featuring comfort at sea, diverting activities aboard and ashore, and intimate, carefully presented dining experiences.”

The prices range for a four-day trip will be approximately $1,200 per person. 

“We have 14 reservations for June 2, next year,” said Barnes. “We better be ready.”

Noah Barnes grew up in the business, his parents, Ken and Ellen, raising him and his sisters on the different schooners they owned. Noah went off to see the world — PIttsburgh, Texas, California, Europe, earned a degree in anthropology from Carnegie Mellon, and went to work in New York City.

Then, his parents announced their retirement. Noah had right of first refusal on owning it, but he had to decide in 45 days.

“So, I came home,” he said.

Penobscot Bay and the coast of Maine is equally as captivating and exotic as any other seacoast in the world, he finds.

As owner of the Taber, and now the Ladona, his task is to make the business work. There is always risk taking on an old wooden vessel; yet, the rebuild of the Ladona is just as much about restoring faith in Maine’s windjammer trade as it is in bringing a beautiful old vessel back to glory.

At the July 24 soft launch, the crews of Lyman Morse were on hand, and Barnes thanked them for their good will.

“Mike Rogers, foreman for the rebuild, and the entire Lyman Morse crew, really accommodated us,” he said. “They bent over backward.”

Barnes also thanked Alec Brainerd, who stood nearby, beaming, as the Ladona neared the shoreline. 

“Alec Brainerd was a huge help and offered much moral support in this whole thing,” he said.

Brainerd, the son of Roger, grew up on the Ladona, and he now owns the Rockport boatbuilding company Artisan Boatworks.

As the champagne bottle exploded, bubbles flew across the hull and into Jane’s hair, and everybody cheered.

Beside her, the Ladona’s elegant lines reemerged under a coat of glossy white paint, as she stood out against the harness of the Lyman-Morse Travelift.

She was, as Barnes said, looking really good. 

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657.