The boat that wouldn’t float fills up with water at high tide near Hodgdon Island bridge. On board is owner Myron McLellan as he works to keep the vessel tethered.

For decades the Sarah C. was a staple of the Boothbay waterways, but in recent years the wood panels on the hull leaked, forcing McLellan to keep it tied up at bay.

The 62-foot boat was built in 1959. McLellan purchased the boat as a southern style shrimper in the early 1980s. At Goudy and Stevens in East Boothbay, shipbuilders moved the wheel house from the stern to the bow, converting it into a commercial ground fishing vessel.

It saw its best years during the fishing boom in the 1980s, according to McLellan's wife Barbara, but today the Sarah C. quietly rests as a relic of the past.