After a three-day ordeal at sea in rough weather that included a dramatic helicopter rescue of two crew members, a Maine-built sailboat with a troubled history sank Wednesday morning about 80 miles off the coast of Nantucket.
The three-masted vessel RawFaith was constructed in the style of a 16th century galleon and designed to accommodate people with disabilities. It had been built over four years by George McKay of Addison and his three sons, and had previously been rescued twice before by the Coast Guard after becoming disabled in rough weather.
Efforts to speak with McKay on Wednesday were unsuccessful, but someone had posted a message on the ship’s website, www.rawfaithadventures.com.
“An amazing effort, RawFaith was built with the perseverance and motivation of a man who is driven by bigger goals than himself. Captain McKay pressed on with his mission even in the face of adversity — even when most forces and many people worked against him,” it read in part.
According to Coast Guard officials, they realized there was a problem Monday when an emergency radio beacon deployed as the 118-foot RawFaith was battered by 25-knot winds and seas that eventually reached 10-15 feet.
It was unclear if the weather exceeded the home-built vessel’s limitations, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Connie Terrell.
“With this being a nonstandard vessel, it’s hard to say what its weather limitations were,” Terrell said.
McKay designed the ship to accommodate wheelchairs with the idea of giving children with disabilities an opportunity to learn how to sail. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, used a wheelchair because of Marfan syndrome, a genetic condition.
The Coast Guard ordered improvements after RawFaith became disabled 80 miles off the Maine coast in a Thanksgiving Day gale in 2004, forcing it to be towed to Rockland for major repairs. Two years later, it lost all three masts in another storm off Maine’s Mount Desert Rock, and was again towed to Rockland.
Maine Coast Guard officials had concerns over the seaworthiness of the RawFaith, because it was not built to meet federal standards for passenger vessels. The Coast Guard also pressed McKay to get safety equipment, including the emergency radio beacon that was used on Monday.
“His vision was to take this out to give sailing experiences to handicapped or underprivileged children,” said Cmdr. Derek Dostie, the Coast Guard’s top marine safety official in Maine. “However, the vessel would never have been certified.”On Monday, McKay and his sole crew member were en route to Bermuda when they ran into trouble, according to Randall Rice, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer at Air Station Cape Cod.
The Coast Guard sent a helicopter with Rice aboard in response to the RawFaith’s emergency signal. His first sight of the vessel came Monday night, during a gusty snowstorm, with the old-fashioned lines of the boat looming from roiling seas. It was unexpected — and a bit eerie, he said.
“I’ll be honest with you. I was just overcome by it,” Rice said. “We were shocked … this boat reminded me of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ I was awed by it.”
The Coast Guard was able to communicate with the two men aboard, who informed them that the RawFaith at that point seemed to be able to ride out the storm.
“They said they were doing OK,” Rice said. “We came to a consensus that they weren’t in harm at the time.”
So the helicopter left, after dropping off another survival suit, and two Coast Guard cutters came to monitor the RawFaith’s progress.
But a bilge pump on the sailboat broke and by the following day, McKay and his crewman — who Rice identified only as Andre — reported that they had 2 feet of water in the boat.
“The captain made the decision to abandon the vessel,” Rice said.
Rough seas meant that the cutters couldn’t launch inflatable vessels to pick up the two men and the helicopter returned at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday.
The boat’s three masts posed a danger to the Jayhawk helicopter’s rotor, so the men aboard had to jump into the ocean to be rescued.
Andre jumped first, submerging completely before Rice — who already was in the water — hauled him into the rescue basket.
McKay came next, carrying a 4-foot-long piece of wood that he had been carving, and handed that to Rice.
But the swimmer couldn’t maneuver with the wood and had to release it, he said.
McKay and Andre were able to salvage some of their personal possessions and secured them in an inflatable life raft, which one of the cutters was able to pick up later, Rice said.
Rice said that once aboard the rescue helicopter the two men were able to eat something and start to get warm.
“They were pretty hungry,” he said. “That boat didn’t have any heat at all.”
McKay was “very grateful to be rescued,” Rice said, but also was distressed over losing the RawFaith.
“He lost his home,” Rice said.
The boat sunk less than a day after the rescue.
Rice said McKay’s sons picked him up Tuesday at the Coast Guard station in Cape Cod to take him back home to Maine.
Ed Glaser, the Rockland harbormaster, said that even though the city had its own troubled history with McKay and RawFaith, he was dismayed by the boat’s demise.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s sad when you hear about any boat’s sinking,” he said.
Glaser said that although for a while it seemed that the boat needed to be rescued every time it sailed past the Gulf of Maine islands, that pattern was changing.
“They had done quite a bit of work on her,” he said. “They had put in some serious masts and good rigging and redesigned sails.”
Still, he wasn’t exactly surprised by the boat’s fate, alluding to McKay’s troubled history with it.
“It’s certainly possible that a different character might not have taken the boat out in the North Atlantic in the middle of the wintertime,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.