Manuel Swartz, the well-known boat builder, near Steamboat Wharf, has just built for Capt.
Without any federal or state permits, the Unicorn is likely nearing the end of her long residency in Menemsha harbor. Capt. Greg Mayhew recently sold his groundfish permit — the last on the Vineyard — to The Nature Conservancy.
The Gannon and Benjamin boatyard on the Vineyard Haven harbor was the scene of a festive launch Monday for a new design created by the venerable wooden boat yard. The Sheldrake is a gaff sloop daysailer and Nat Benjamin’s 85th original design.
On the day after Thanksgiving Nat Benjamin and a four-man crew cast off the stern lines of the gaff-rigged schooner Charlotte and set sail for the Caribbean. But it will be more than a cruising adventure.
When Tim and Trisha Colon bought a sailboat in Duluth, Minn., bringing the 45-foot boat home became a family adventure. With their two children, the Colons sailed the boat through the Great Lakes, down the Hudson River and across Long Island Sound to Vineyard Haven harbor.
Every once in awhile when I was a child summering at East Chop, a four or five-masted schooner would come into sight, white sails filled with wind.
Though she hasn’t gotten the press the Charles W. Morgan has earned, the fishing vessel Roann can claim as deep a Vineyard pedigree. She was built in 1947 for Roy. M. Campbell of Vineyard Haven. Now she is escort to the Morgan.
