Updated, 11 am, Tuesday, Nov. 1. The Kimberly Anne was discovered Saturday, Oct. 29 on the north side of Muskeget Island. Details to follow.
The yawl Kimberly Anne of Bass River went missing from Vineyard Haven Harbor almost two weeks ago. The boat had been brought to the Island earlier this month to be repaired at Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway, Nat Benjamin told The Times on Friday. Gannon and Benjamin staff were checking on it every day, he said, and it was there last Friday (Oct. 21). On Monday it was gone. Mr. Benjamin immediately reported its absence to the police and the area harbormasters. The Coast Guard has now also been notified.
Mr. Benjamin said that a boat has never in his memory disappeared from a mooring. He acknowledged that the wind had been blowing hard over the weekend, but said that he would have expected the boat to wash up on shore if it broke loose from its mooring.
Erick Cooper, Kimberly Anne’s owner, purchased the boat this past spring. It had been out of the water for a few years. “It needed to be rescued,” he said. “It took a ton of work to get it ready.” The boat has been afloat since July, but it had been taking on some water, so Mr. Cooper recently brought it to Gannon and Benjamin to be “refastened.”
“There are screws that hold the wood to the frame,” he explained, “and they were disintegrating. They were bronze, which is a good thing, but they were the originals and needed to be replaced.”
The Gannon and Benjamin staff were checking the boat daily to keep an eye on the leak, but Mr. Benjamin said it was not likely to have caused the boat to sink.
The 35-foot yawl was designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built in 1959. Much of the exposed brightwork, including the house, is mahogany, while the decks are teak. The hull is white.
