The 115-year-old Violet, a Scots Zulu vessel. —Nicholas Vukota 
From left to right, Kristi, Kinsman, and Gary Maynard. —Nicholas Vukota 
M.V. Shipyard and Gannon & Benjamin employees ready the boat for launch. —Nicholas Vukota 
The Maynards aboard the Violet as it’s lowered into the water at the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard. —Nicholas Vukota 
The Maynards fasten the anchor to the vessel. —Nicholas Vukota 
The Violet after launch. —Nicholas Vukota
There was a lot of commotion, both good and bad, in the Vineyard Haven Harbor Monday.
It was the day that the historic wooden 115-year-old Scots Zulu vessel, the Violet, was set to be launched back into the harbor. Built in 1911 and once owned by Bob Douglas, founder of Black Dog Tavern who also built the tall ship Shenandoah, the Violet was put back where she belongs, in the waters of Vineyard Haven Harbor, after several months of work through the winter.
Current owners Kristi and Gary Maynard, who rebuilt the boat in the late 1980s after the vessel sat derelict in the harbor for years, oversaw the launch Monday afternoon, alongside their son Kinsman Maynard. Kristi and Gary are the founders of Holmes Hole Builders, a construction company in Tisbury.
At the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard, a patrol boat of Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway workers stood by in case of engine trouble as the crew successfully put the Violet back in the water.
But the launch was delayed several hours because of what Michael Gately, Tisbury Harbormaster, called a “pretty strong Northeast wind” coming into the harbor, and although the cause remains unconfirmed, the shipyard employees were diverted from the Violet launch to a sinking 40-foot power boat near the jetty.
Gately said he received a call from a Steamship Authority captain who said he saw a boat “sitting low on its water line.” From his own binoculars, he said that was pretty apparent.
Gately said he got in touch with the M.V. Shipyard, and James Hale from the full service boatyard was the first on the scene. “They managed to get the boat undertow and start to try to pump it and tow it to get some of the water out from it,” Gately added.
Eventually, they towed the power boat behind the breakwater to shelter it from the weather. Between the Shipyard’s pumps and Tisbury’s new pump-out boat, they managed to save the vessel.
“We were probably about a minute away from that thing going underwater,” Gately said as he commended Hale and the Shipyard employees for their efforts. Gately said they plan to do an investigation into the cause of the near-sinking.