Mark Alan Lovewell
When the topsail schooner Shenandoah goes sailing this summer, credit for some of the work this spring in preparing the beautiful wooden vessel for another season goes to a 26-year-old West Tisbury resident. Working in his shop in the woods, Myles Thurlow built and restored several important spars on the 47-year-old Shenandoah.
A 28-foot sailboat named after a John Coltrane ballad was christened and launched on Saturday at the Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway in Vineyard Haven.
Naima, the sailboat’s name, is an Arabic woman’s name, said the new owner, Bill Ryan, of State College, Pa.
Mr. Ryan, a Penn State meteorologist, and his wife, Joan Richtsmeier, shared the launch with a handful of friends.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
A mysterious piece of a lost Edgartown sailboat was recently discovered on a beach in Portugal. Jeremy Ryan-Bell and his wife June were out walking on a favorite beach north of Carrapateira, at extreme low tide, and they found the piece on a sandy beach under the magnificent limestone cliffs. The words on the piece of fiberglass debris were clear: Edgartown and Flyer.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
There is another fishing boat in Menemsha. The blue, 55-foot offshore lobsterboat Retriever belongs to Capt. Alec Gale and will be used by him to transport fish from Menemsha to the mainland. Retriever replaces his previous workboat, the Jane Lee, a Bruno Stillman 55.
More than 50 fishermen participated in the first Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass Shootout, a one-day, mostly boat fishing tournament, on Saturday, June 5. The Edgartown-based fishing contest owes its roots to the former annual Pink Squid Yacht Club spring fishing tournament and was taken over by those at Larry’s Tackle Shop.
Due to a combination of climate change creating warmer water conditions and continued pressure from fishing, lobster stocks in southern New England have been badly depleted, and a five-year moratorium is needed for recovery.
This is the recommendation of a technical panel for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in a report discussed last week.
“Overwhelming environmental and biological changes coupled with continued fishing greatly reduce the likelihood of southern New England stock rebuilding,” the report said.