A 38-foot pleasure craft caught fire off East Chop late Monday afternoon, sending a massive plume of black smoke high above Vineyard Sound and prompting a mass mutual aid response. All passengers were safely evacuated.
The U.S. Coast Guard investigated a mishap in which a fishing boat struck the yawl boat of the schooner Shenandoah Wednesday. The yawl boat, hanging from davits off the stern of the Black Dog ship, was destroyed; the two larger vessels were unharmed.
A U.S. Coast Guard investigation into the sinking of a the fishing boat Robert C. Monday afternoon off Dogfish Bar at the western end of the Vineyard, remains open and active, according to a Coast Guard spokesman The owner of the sunken vessel reportedly has decided not to salvage the 33-foot wooden boat, which went down in 40 to 50 feet of water after colliding with another fishing boat.
A wide-ranging air and sea search for the owner of a 13-foot Hobie Cat was called off late Saturday after the boat owner called the Coast Guard to identify himself. The unmarked sailboat was found washed ashore with its sails up near Lake Tashmoo on Friday.
Be careful what goes into the sea. It isn’t always gone.
Authorites in Spain have recovered the remains of a 26-foot fiberglass recreational boat floating in the waters off Spain. The boat, called Queen Bee, has been traced back to the waters of Nantucket and a boating accident that happened three and a half years ago.
There were no injuries and no damage following a brief collision between the freight ferry Katama and a Vineyard lobster boat on Wednesday afternoon, the Steamship Authority said in a statement.
In an e-mail to the Gazette Thursday morning, SSA general manager Wayne Lamson wrote:
A three-man sail from Vineyard waters earlier this month ended in tragedy; a loss of a sailor’s life, a dismasting of a two-masted sailboat which was later abandoned, and a dramatic rescue of two in the high seas.
Captain Dennis White, 63, of the 41-foot ketch Emma Goldman, had left the Vineyard on Saturday, Nov. 6 with a crew of two: the captain’s longtime friend William (Willie) Thorns, 64, of Mashpee and his 25-year-old daughter, Amanda Thorns.
