Seastruck

From Gazette editions of July, 1985:

The Pilgrim Belle, with 85 passengers and 23 crew members aboard, struck the rocks of Sow and Pigs Reef Sunday afternoon, tore a massive hole in its hull and was saved only by quick action on the part of the Coast Guard and salvagers. A Menemsha Coast Guard official said that the 190-foot cruise ship was badly off course when it struck the notorious reef three-quarters of a mile southwest of Cuttyhunk. The vessel was bound from Vineyard Haven to Block Island when it ran onto the rocks. All the passengers and all but seven of the crew were evacuated without incident to a variety of vessels which came to the aid of the stricken ship.

The captain of the vessel was Robert Raisch, a seasoned captain who has been sailing the Pilgrim Belle for two weeks. The ship began a one-week cruise leaving from Hyannis. Pilgrim Belle cruises have been promoted by its owners as a week’s cruise with an island a day. The six and a half month old ship, built in Alabama, began her maiden voyage in Vineyard waters in early June. She is supposed to be the first of three cruise ships built for the Coastwise Cruise Line, owned by Richard M. Scudder. Mr. Scudder formed the line after a successful career as president of Hyannis Harbor Tours, which also operates the Hy-line ships which make regular trips between Hyannis and Oak Bluffs.

At 59 years of age, Richard (Dick) Newick has designed a lot of sailboats for others. His designs have won international awards and international races. Mr. Newick is recognized the world over as a pioneer in the design of fast, lightweight, multi-hulls. In 1980 the trimaran Moxie, a boat he designed and which sails in Vineyard waters, won the international OSTAR race. This year Mr. Newick hopes to do something different. Instead of designing and building a boat for others, he is finishing a dream boat he designed for himself and his wife. It is a 51-foot trimaran named Pat’s. “Pat’s boat is a collection of various ideas that I don’t feel I can ask my cash customers to try. I have to prove them by myself,” he said.

Mr. Newick’s boats, though some are the fastest in the world, are built with wood. He kiddingly describes it as Miracle Fiber W, as learned from another distinguished designer. “Everything in today’s age of gimmickry needs a catch name.” Under two patented systems he combines wood with epoxy. It is beyond fiberglass and suits his designs perfectly.

The new boat is “intended to be comfortable for the two of us and two guests. It is designed to be sailed by older folks. Some people are afraid of boats that go 20 knots because they think they are difficult to handle. Phil Weld, who sailed Moxie and won the OSTAR race, was 65 years old when he soloed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic,” he said.

Mr. Newick’s greatest teachers are the wind and the sea. “I have little respect for the boat designer who spends most of his time at a desk — unless he goes to sea often and spends time in the boat shop and gets his hands dirty. You’ve got to be frightened out there to find out what is needed. The sea keeps you honest.”

The Gull Too, a 40-foot lobsterboat belonging to Chilmark selectman Herbert Hancock, exploded and sank in Menemsha harbor Tuesday morning. Mr. Hancock’s wife Billie was injured in the accident. Mr. Hancock escaped harm. The gasoline explosion took place at 5:50 a.m. as the Hancocks were preparing to leave the harbor and go lobstering. The sound of the explosion was heard miles away. Coast Guardsmen from Menemsha responded with their 41-foot utility boat which was moored just 30 yards away, and extinguished the blaze.

“I was standing at the wheel, Billie was coming out of the cabin,” Mr. Hancock said. “She had set one foot out of the cabin. The explosion must have blown her out of the cabin. And then I was looking at the boat which I had had for 23 years blow up into pieces. In a fraction of a second everything was burning. Billie was lying on the engine box. She couldn’t move. I picked her up and lowered her over the side into the water. I went over the side and we both waded toward the shore.”

The first to arrive at the scene was Christina McDermott, who was wakened in her house which overlooks the Hancock dock. She arrived in her nightgown. Virginia Poole heard the explosion from her house several miles away off Nashaquitsa Pond. Everett Poole was inside his Dutcher Dock fish market and went outside, wondering what the noise was: “It looked like Hiroshima.”

Mr. Hancock said, “I had that boat 23 years. She already went through one hurricane in 1954. It was a beautiful boat. I put a new engine in her last year. Last summer I added radar and Loran. And all for a little gas fumes, it is now all gone.” On Wednesday Mr. Hancock went to Plymouth. “I bought a 31-foot boat, all ready to go. And she has a diesel engine that won’t explode.”

Compiled by Cynthia Meisner

library@mvgazette.com