A 31-foot sailing vessel was pulled from the beach at Menemsha and refloated Thursday morning after it had run aground four days earlier.

Harbor master pulled the boat from the beach Thursday without incident, assisted by Jonathan Mayhew. — Courtesy Chilmark harbor master

Chilmark harbor master Ryan Rossi said the vessel Kari was towed into the harbor Thursday with no damage. Jonathan Mayhew assisted with pulling the sailboat off the beach and into the water, the harbor master said.

Mr. Rossi said earlier in the week that the vessel ran into trouble with its steering and only had sails for propulsion at the time of the incident, just before sunset Sunday.

“It did not have a working motor at the time,” Mr. Rossi said.

The grounding caused plenty of chatter on the waterfront.

The vessel Kari is home ported in Kingston, R.I., and was captained by its owner Christian Comazzi, according to the harbor master and Chilmark police. “It was a real high tide when it happened,” Mr. Rossi said. “There was a swell coming out of the northeast which pushed it pretty far up the beach.”

He said Mr. Comazzi was the only person on board the vessel when it grounded, and was not injured. He said the captain intentionally ran aground and did not contact the Coast Guard or other harbor officials.

Attempts to lift the sailboat off the beach Wednesday morning were unsuccessful, but the effort finally saw success on Thursday.