Updated 22 April 2024:
Applegarth is privately owned and sails from Havre de Grace, Maryland. She had a brief motion picture career, featured in the 1994 movie "IQ," in which she sailed with Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins and Walter Matthau on board.
Applegarth was the last boat built by Curtis Applegarth at his boatyard in Oxford, Maryland. Originally named Pride of Erin, she was built in 1977 for a Baltimore doctor.
She later went back to the Applegarth boatyard before being sold to a new owner on the Tred Avon River, who donated her to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, where she sat in a field for a while. Somewhere along the line, she acquired her current name, Applegarth.
In the early 1990s, the owner of a boat called Champion Girl, built by Jim Richardson, was approached by Paramount Studios. They wanted to use his boat for a movie, but would need to remove the cabin, which the owner, naturally, was reluctant to allow. Instead, he found Applegarth for them at the museum, and Paramount took her to Princeton, New Jersey, where the movie was being filmed.
Applegarth appears for about two and a half minutes in the movie IQ, released in 1994. Aboard are the film's stars, Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins, with Walter Matthau—playing Albert Einstein—at the tiller.
After her brief encounter with stardom, Applegarth sat in a warehouse before being sold to Paul Thomas for $1,000. He hauled her back to the Chesapeake Bay and spent three years rebuilding her. As of 2024, he continues to own and sail Applegarth from Havre de Grace, Maryland.