CAMDEN – Aaron Lincoln owns and operates the Olad and Owl off of Camden's public Landing. The Owl can take six passengers and is a cutter — an old-timey rig, in a way, from before the day of roller furling. With two headsails it gave more options if the windy picked up. A single person who was handling the boat back in the day could drop one sail and still have a headsail left.

The Olad is U.S. Coast Guard approved for 22 passengers.

"It's a crazy business,” said Lincoln. “It's a very short summer and a very long winter, as they say. I've worked hard over the years to try and diversify those off seasons. The tourist business has completely changed in the 20 years I've done this.

"I do a lot of traveling and my joke was always no matter where you traveled, no matter how small a place you were in, there was always one German accent and one Canadian person sitting beside me. And there was that one English accent you could hear close by.”

Is the internet helpful?

"Yes, for sure," he said. "I used to say I was competing against three boats in the harbor. The Appledore, the Lazy Jack and the Surprise, but I think that's really changed and people try to decide ahead of time whether they are going sailing in Portland, or Bar Harbor or Camden.”

The Olad sails from the harbor five times a day. A day sail is two hours long.

"The first trip of the morning, people are on their A-game," he said. 'They will ask you more questions. They've had two cups of coffee, a full breakfast and want to know everything about everything from here to there and back again. And they are good questions."

The noon trip is a little different.

"There are still questions, but it's a little more active sailing," he said. "Your energy goes more from people into sailing the boat. Same with the second afternoon sail, and you start to realize the afternoon trip is like hanging out in your living room."

The sunset sail is more of an aesthetic trip.

"On the sunset sails you try to point out the lighthouse and the guy says, ‘hey dude do you mind, I'm with my girlfriend, can we do a little less talking.’" he said. "Watch us take a selfie. It's just a totally different sail."

Lincoln said he feels lucky that he hasn't been plagued with employment problems like other businesses.

"I've had the same crew going on four years now, so I feel lucky," he said. "When I worked in the Florida Keys I went through crew so fast I wouldn't even give them a bunk right away. They would move in and be gone in a week, so I would give them a bunk in the galley for a week and see if they could do the job."

Lincoln said he's had a harder time hiring captains and feels that will become an industry-wide problem.

Lincoln said the Olad was built in 1927.

"It was kind of the wrong time to hit the market," he said. "It was owned by a stockbroker and the late 1920s were great years for brokers. It went through a succession of owners quickly. Someone would buy it for what they thought was a deal and of course the market didn't recover, so it went through some tough years."

Lincoln said the boat didn't find its footing again until after the war.

"During the war it was a Navy ship and did submarine patrolling," he said. "They would pretend to be fishermen off Nassau, but were looking for submarines."

Lincoln said the boats’ biggest claim to fame was through Walter Cronkite.

"The story goes, he did a lot of sailing on the boat and that's where he got his love for bigger boats and adventuring," he said. "He tried to buy the boat a couple of times, but the owners wouldn't sell it."

Lincoln said years later Cronkite had a big motor boat called the Patriot. He would tie up in Camden Harbor and go up the hill to get a cheeseburger.

"I got this really great idea that I would write Cronkite a letter and invite him on the boat," he said. "This was the same year I bought the boat and I thought it would be great to get him back on it."

Lincoln said he ran to his car, which was his office in those days, and quickly wrote a note.

"I said I'm wasn’t looking for the fanfare and wouldn’t invite the press," he said. He wrote: “I just think it would be interesting to take you sailing on a boat you haven't been on in 40 plus years. I gave it to the guy at the companion way and asked him, ‘when Walter comes back would you hand him this letter.’"

Lincoln said he didn't hear anything.

"Two years go by and I had to take a firefighting course down in Portland that was required by the Coast Guard.," he said. " I had an Olad shirt on and this guy walks up to me and asks if I work on the Olad. I said I own it and he says my boss wants me to take you to lunch today."

Lincoln said his boss turned out to be Walter Cronkite.

"He said a couple of years ago you wrote him a really nice letter," he said. "He has cancer and couldn't go sailing for two hours. It wasn't public knowledge at that time, but he realized he would never get to go sailing with you. He told me all these stories about being on your boat when he was a young man and he wanted me to tell them to you."

For more information on the Schooner Olad and Cutter Owl visit maineschooners.com/