The 61st annual Windjammer Days will take place Sunday, June 25 through Saturday, July 1, 2023. This year the Friends of Windjammer Days is celebrating our rich population of Maritime Explorers. Those featured have traveled extensively on different bodies of waters either for work, pleasure or both.

Rusty Court is well known in these parts as a fisherman and lobsterman, but he also has quite the maritime history beginning in 1961. It was in that year that Rusty entered the Coast Guard and was stationed in Washington, D.C. as part of President John F. Kennedy’s Honor Guard. The Honor Guard presides over ceremonies such as at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and is present when visiting dignitaries arrive in Washington.

After a year with the President, Rusty was sent to Portland, Maine to be on the Coast Guard cutter Acushnet. Most of his time on the Acushnet was spent on Georges Bank which is 130 miles offshore. As this was long before the 200-mile fishing limit was imposed, there were over one hundred Russian vessels fishing close to our shores. Rusty was given the job to be the ship’s photographer and to take pictures of all the Russian fleet for the government. He photographed 200-foot draggers and the 300-foot mother ship. Due to complaints from the northeast fishermen that the Russians were taking our fish, the 200-mile limit was subsequently imposed.

On November 1, 1965, Rusty was honorably discharged from the Coast Guard. Rusty then moved to Monhegan, a place where he had visited from the age of two and where his father had bought a house in 1947. For the next 20 years, Rusty focused his energies on commercial fishing and lobstering with purse seining in the summers.

In 1983 Rusty moved to the mainland and then built a house in East Boothbay in 1985. During this time, he was on the board of the Fishermen’s Memorial Fund which primarily raised donations to fund a scholarship for Boothbay Region seniors who were planning to attend a marine related school after graduation. He especially remembers the Fishermen’s Festival, a yearly event which occurred at the end of April. When not volunteering, he ran in the trap hauling contest as well. Rusty remarks that the highlight of the Fishermen’s Festival for him was seeing the town’s people having so much fun after a long winter.

Captain Court continues to reside in East Boothbay and is often seen around town at multiple venues and events. He has two children, Casey Anne Court and Eben Draper Court. If you want to be entertained, just ask Rusty about the adventures from his fishing days which range from at-sea rescues, practical jokes and celebrity encounters.