The two-masted Auxiliary Schooner Bagheera is a trophy-winning cruising yacht with a noteworthy racing record, designed by the master naval architect John G. Alden, and built at one of Maine?s well known East Bootbay wooden shipyards. Constructed in 1924 for the scientist Marion Eppley, the yacht was one of two wooden vessels built simultaneously by the shipyard following Alden?s Design # 226 for a 55 ? foot Auxillery Schooner with a gasoline engine and gaff rig. Originally named Beacon Rock and homeported in Newport, Rhode Island, the vessel was sold in 1928 to Robert P. Benedict who painted the hull black and renamed the vessel Bagheera. Benedict moved the yacht to Chicago where she started a lengthy racing career on Lake Michigan, most notably winning the Mackinac Race twice. With the exception of a six-month stint as a training vessel during World War II, Bagheera remained in private hands through 1986, when she was outfitted as a charter in San Francisco, California. Now berthed in Portland, Maine, just 36 miles south of the Rice Brothers Shipyard in which she was built, Bagheera functions as a commercial schooner offering day trips in Casco Bay. Unlike many other historic wooden vessels the interior of Bagheera has not be redesigned to provide overnight accommodations for commercial clients. As such she retains a high degree of integrity of design, materials, and workmanship reflecting her racing configuration and use as a private yacht. Bagheeera was placed in the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion A, in the area of Entertainment and Recreation, in recognition of her historic racing significance, and under Criterion C, as a little altered example of a type of cruising yacht designed for speed and stability by one of the master designers of early 20th century wooden vessels, John G. Alden.