Mariner prepares to launch Mystic Harbor Cruises with Prudence, Patience
New London — Jonathan Wilkes caught the boat bug a long time ago.
A 45-year-old New Jersey native, he’s been working in and around boatyards since he was 13. He’s captained boats, overhauled boats and brokered boat sales. He’s leased slips, mastered docks and managed marinas.
But on a recent rain-soaked day at Pearl Marine Yacht Services, the Howard Street yard he acquired here last fall, he mostly wanted to talk about Prudence. And, to a lesser degree, Patience. They’re the passenger ferries he plans to introduce to southeastern Connecticut next month via Mystic Harbor Cruises, a companion to Greenwich Harbor Cruises, which he’s been operating from the Delamar Greenwich Harbor hotel since 2013.
Wilkes and his wife Elfi bought a home in Mystic last summer.
“I love the town, this end of the state, its marine history,” he said. “It has everything that’s a passion for me. Boating-wise, it’s beautiful. I’m really excited to be here.”
Wilkes’s passion for Prudence is almost palpable.
Launched in East Boothbay, Maine, in 1911, Prudence is one of only three Maine-built wooden steamboats still in service, Wilkes said, another being Mystic Seaport’s Sabino, which is three years older than Prudence.
Sabino, which is being restored at the Seaport, is still powered by its original steam engine and is the oldest wooden, coal-fired steamboat in regular service in the United States, according to the museum. Prudence, converted long ago from steam to a gas engine and then to diesel, has been inspected and licensed every year since its launching, making it, Wilkes said, the oldest continuously operated ship in the country.
Warming to the tale, Wilkes recounted Prudence’s provenance.
The vessel plied Narragansett Bay for some 50 years before being acquired by the Scudder family, which founded Hy-Line Cruises, the ferry line that now runs high-speed service from Hyannis, Mass., to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Back in 1962, the Scudders pressed Prudence into service providing tours of the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, a business that thrived for another 50 years. The family added Patience, built in Stonington, Maine, in 1982.
In 2011, after celebrating Prudence’s 100-year anniversary, the Scudders sold Prudence to a Maine charter boat captain who had acquired Patience several years before. Wilkes bought Prudence in 2013 and sailed it to Connecticut. He landed Patience last year.
Wilkes was already planning to launch Mystic River Cruises when the Hellier Yacht Sales site on Howard Street in New London became available. In September, he signed a lease-purchase agreement with Hellier’s owner, Wayne Burdick. The property includes an 8,800-square-foot building and 16 slips.
Pearl Marine Yacht Services, Wilkes’s New London business, offers “custom care for the private yacht client.”
“Jonathan’s profile seemed to be ideal for the property,” Burdick said. “His clients have big, beautiful yachts.”
Burdick, who bought the property for Hellier Yacht Sales in 1986, took a position with Beneteau, the French boat manufacturer, in the 1990s, leaving business partners to run Hellier’s. Eastern Yacht Sales also operated there. Burdick retired from Beneteau at the end of last year.
“Not many places in Connecticut have heated space like this,” Wilkes said, leading a tour of Pearl Marine’s facilities. Nine yachts with a combined value of more than $10 million filled the space, and a 10th boat was stored outside. Wilkes and his crew of a half-dozen men have been preparing them for the boating season ahead.
Prudence, out of the water, also is being readied at Pearl Marine. Patience has been in the water at the Schooner Wharf docks in Mystic. Wilkes said the ships will alternate between Mystic and Greenwich based on the demand for their capacities. Prudence can carry 100 passengers, Patience 130.
Mystic Harbor Cruises, with ticket offices at 14 Holmes St. in Mystic, will feature two-hour Mystic River tours that incorporate such sights as Mystic Seaport, the drawbridge, Masons Island, Bartlett Reef Light, Ram Island and Fishers Island.
“So come ride history,” a company brochure says.
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