John Gardner, 90

Castine, Maine

John Gardner died Nov. 21, 2019. He was 90 years old and lived in Castine, where he raised his family with his wife, Elaine, built exquisitely detailed models of yachts and working boats, and was a fiercely competitive sailor.

Gardner spent part of his childhood in Castine, with his roots in town dating back to the mid-18th century. Still, he was “from away.” Gardner was born in Paterson, N.J., near New York Harbor, from which his father, deep sea shipmaster Captain Henry Gardner II, frequently sailed. The Captain and his family returned to Castine in John’s first year. He lived there until the age of 9, when the family returned to New Jersey. In 1973, Gardner returned to Castine.

Gardner joined the Navy just after the end of World War II and served aboard landing ships as a Seabee (seagoing engineer). After the war, he studied at the Art Students League in New York City. For a few years, Gardner worked as a deckhand aboard tugboats in New York Harbor. Then he headed for Alaska where, among other things, he fought wildfires.

After a year and a half or so Gardner returned to New York where, with the help of his father, he got his first job working on the docks, but not before sailing on – and leaving – an ill-fated circumnavigation aboard an elderly 75-foot ketch. Rising through the ranks of the city’s tough, racket-controlled longshoreman’s industry, Gardner eventually became a terminal manager on the Brooklyn docks. Along the way, he met and married his wife, Elaine.

While in New York, Gardner acquired the O’Day Outlaw sloop he named Julie and raced competitively for many years, both in the New York area and in Castine after he returned in 1973. After he sold the boat, he still competed regularly and successfully for many years in the Maine Retired Skippers Race as both crew and, eventually, skipper. Gardner won the race with the Sparkman & Stephens-designed New York 32 sloop Falcon three times – in 2008, 2009 and 2014. In 2015, at the age of 86, he sailed the L.F. Herreshoff-designed Rozinante ketch in his final go-round in the race.

Living on the shores of Penoboscot Bay, Gardner and two friends bought a scallop dragger, which they fished for a few seasons, and he also worked on supply boats that serviced oil rigs out of Rhode Island and New York.

Around 1975, Gardner began to build the highly detailed boat models that would eventually wind up in numerous museums and private collections. Among the vessels modeled are several Castine Class sloops, schooners, motor yachts and working boats and sailing yachts. Gardner also was a prolific graphic artist who produced many maritime and other drawings in a variety of media.

Among Gardner’s interests beyond his art and sailing were serious bicycling and, unquestionably, the jazz he first encountered in New York in the 1940s and 1950s, played by musicians such as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and others.

John’s wife Elaine, along with his children William, Juliane and Annie, a daughter- and son-in-law, and several grandchildren, survive him.