The story of the Cape Codder 19 dates to the late 1960s when Sandy Urquhart was tinkering with hull designs aimed at creating an affordable craft made specifically for Cape and Vineyard waters.
Elizabeth Thompson, an 11-year-old, sixth-grader at the West Tisbury school, broke the derby’s junior record for boat-caught bonito on Saturday with a 11.68-pound fish.
Serena Ward, fishing in her first derby, earned bragging rights for the first fish, an 8.4-pound false albacore. Chuck Winter was second with a 4.44-pound bluefish.
The bell will ring and the first fish will cross the scale Sunday morning as usual. But beyond that, little will be as usual when the 75th Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby gets under way.
With 51 minutes to go during Saturday night’s final weigh-in for the 74th Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, it seemed as if all the fish on the grand leaderboards were going to hold.