New Article | The Maggie B Lost to Fire

A new article (September BOAT International) is available (pdf) in the Ship’s Library, in our Links section.

Update on the fire, Thursday, 09.04.2008

I am very happy to report that there is a lovely eight page article about the Schooner Maggie B in the September BOAT International. Be sure to get the International edition, not the USA one. It has “Sailing Special” on the cover. We are on page 232. I will scan it and get it up on the web site as soon as I get permission from the publisher.

There is little new news from the fire. The fire inspectors and the insurance specialists agree that the fire started in the area where the main electrical circuits come into the building. A nearby extension cord on a retractable reel is suspected. Most all of the boat gear was stored in the building and was also destroyed. The main, fore and jib sails were at North Sails for repair but the storm sails and our beautiful “Bird” gennaker were also burnt.

I hope to salvage the partially melted prop and some of the charred keel. I hope to send little pieces of the burnt hull to friends in all our favorite places around the world, to be put back in the seas where we sailed and those, like the Mediterranean, where we hoped to go.

The Maggie B was fully insured and the insurance company is being entirely cooperative. I have no plans for “what’s next” other than writing the book and telling the story.

I regret to report the death of Edwin Sperry, the master electrician for the Covey Island building. He died in the woods near his house in Petit Rivere on the Sunday after the fire.