On the Vineyard Haven waterfront you can see, smell and hear the bustle of activity. The town's boatyards are all party to boat building and launching. Anyone who walks the shores of the town will discover a wide variety of vessels undergoing extensive work. It was a busy winter and there is evidence everywhere.
Maciel Marine, Martha's Vineyard Shipyard and Gannon and Benjamin boatyards are witness to a resurgence in interest in Island built and restored vessels.
With shipyards prohibited under the state stay-at-home order from launching boats, at least two harbors have delayed opening for the upcoming boating season.
The coming of the New York Yacht Club cruising fleet stirs never-to-be-forgotten memories. It is bewildering to realize how many persons cannot recall this scene, not having been born at the time, and thus cannot without difficulty follow a description by one whose emotions were deeply stirred by the sight sixty-five years ago.
The fleet did not always rendezvous at Vineyard Haven, yet that harbor was favored and the club’s own shore base was erected on the Eastville shore maintained by a club steward who was a year-round resident of Oak Bluffs.
Boat watchers, prepare yourselves! The New York Yacht Club’s annual cruise will arrive in Edgartown today. The yearly progress, which touches at several southeastern New England ports, has been an eye-catching summer spectacle for at least 116 years. This year’s fleet includes 106 sailboats and a collection of more than 60 power craft.
There was a feeling of excitement and expectation in the air as one arrived at the shipyard of Harvey F. Gamage in South Bristol, Me., Saturday morning.
Arriving at the same time were MacPherson’s Pipers, a seventeen-piece bagpipe band handsomely attired in full dress kilt regimentals of colorful tartan, their immaculate gaiters gleaming white in the water sun.
The extreme clipper schooner, Shenandoah, Capt. Robert S. Douglas, master, arrived at her home port, Vineyard Haven, during the weekend, and is due to sail this week for the Atlantic Ocean with her first passenger list. Named for a U. S. revenue cutter built in 1849, whose hull design and rig have been closely followed, the Shenandoah symbolizes all that was beautiful, judicious and distinct in the sailing craft that made America famous on the seven seas.
Quietly and without any fanfare or other demonstration, the old schooner Alice S. Wentworth slipped out of Vineyard Haven last weekend, bound on the first leg of her long trip to Sandy Point, Me. Capt. Parker Hall, who purchased the vessel early last spring, had been waiting for a couple of young Quincy yachtsmen who had volunteered some time ago to “ship for the run,” and assist in taking the vessel to her new hailing port.
A dream which many Vineyard Haven people have cherished for years is about to be realized in the establishment of a yacht club in that town. Between fifteen and twenty boats have already been ordered and about fifty persons are ready to sign the club articles as members as soon as the organization is incorporated.
Quarters on the waterfront are to be obtained and put in condition for the use of the club before next season and all lovers of water sports, ships and salt water are filled with enthusiasm.
The forty-foot dragger Viking, which blew up and burned in Menemsha Creek Basin this summer, has been sold by her former owner, M.S. Duarte of Vineyard Haven, to Capt. John Coutinho of the same town. The Viking has been hauled out at the Martha’s Vineyard Shipbuilding Company yards, and will be completely rebuilt. Albert Allen, yard superintendent, and his regular crew, will perform the work. When she is once more in condition, Captain Coutinho will replace his present small fishing boat with the Viking.
