A fifty-year-old tall ship sailing business in Mystic is for sale for only the second time in its history.
Captain Amy Blumberg is selling Argia Mystic Cruises after 25 years of ownership.
“The business is great and thriving and it’s a good time to sell it,” she told the Hartford Business Journal. “I’d like to make sure that somebody else has a lot of energy to do what I’ve been doing and keep it going as strongly as it is.”
Blumberg has not advertised a sale price, but says the business generates annual revenues of $1 million, with a 50% profit margin.
The 81-foot topsail schooner Argia was built by the original owner and operator, Captain Frank Fulchiero, in 1986. It is a well-known sight in the center of Mystic, docked by the town’s historic drawbridge.
“We’re part of the community — that’s a thing that I’m very proud of,” she said.
According to Blumberg, between public day sails and private charters, the ship hosts some 20,000 passengers each year. The business has between seven and nine employees, depending on the season, including two full-time captains, deckhands, mates and office staff.
The ship has been featured over the years in the New York Times, Yankee Magazine, Architectural Digest, and SAIL Magazine, as well as in the state’s tourism ads and TV commercials.
“It’s designed after the type of packet schooner that you would have seen in the 1700s and 1800s,” Blumberg said.
