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t once served as a water trough for thirsty cattle. Recently, it was tied up at Oriental’s town dock on its way to Costa Rica. For the 40-foot black and red vessel “Black Velvet”, it’s just another chapter in the life of a pirate ship. For its owners, Matt Kempton and Shana Overby, it’s a shot at a new life they hope leads to Costa Rica.

Black Velvet’s 45 year journey has gone from life boat hull to water tank to pirate ship to Oriental visitor

Shana Overby and Matt Kempton

It all began when the mortgage market collapsed.

Matt had always wanted to visit Costa Rica but couldn’t because he was working in the mortgage industry in Denver, Colorado. His specialty was repairing credit ratings. Then the mortgage crisis struck. In one year, his company changed managers 4 times and he got “sick of work and needed to go”.

Shana with crew-schnauzer Alfie

Shana, originally of Lewisville, Texas, had initially come to Colorado to study photography. After her studies, she went to work for the same company Matt worked for. It’s there that, in the face of the mortgage crisis, they made the “radical decision” to pursue a new life together. They would quit their jobs, buy a sailboat together and sail to Costa Rica.

Initially, they’d planned on buying a Lapworth sailboat. They found one they liked, getting as far as a verbal contract with the seller. At the last minute, after they’d told all their friends they were going cruising, the deal fell through. That’s when a friend of Matt’s dad remembered another boat that might be for sale.

That boat was “Black Velvet”. She was in Georgetown, Maryland. So Matt and Shana headed east, bought her and they had a cruising boat.

Born a lifeboat – grew up a pirate ship

Black Velvet started life as a prototype life boat for an ocean liner. Of double-ended design, the hull was constructed of fiberglass in 1964 but never made it to sea. Instead, she ended up in a Pennsylvania field as a water tank for cattle.

That’s where the second owner found her. He dreamed of traveling the Mississippi aboard the bare hull so he built a plywood cabin house inside the vessel that had fallen to watering cows.

Inside Black Velvet’s forward cabin

Then he added a gaff rig. The gaff rig’s short, stout masts, set in tabernacles, allowed the masts to be lowered on deck. That was to allow the vessel to go under the low bridges the second owner planned to encounter in his adventures.

Black Velvet’s main mast and gaff mainsail

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But that owner never took his river journey. Instead, he sold her to a man with quite another dream. Enter pirate fanatic Dean Morey.

Helms Alee! Black Velvet’s third owner Dean Morey (Shana Overby photo)

According to Matt, on special occasions, Morey wore charcoal colored “schmutz on his face” and added black wax on his teeth “so they looked like they were broken out”. He went as far as “investing years in a beard” that, when braided in two parts, graced his chin like “2 bullhorns coming down”.

It was this third owner that transformed Black Velvet into a pirate ship. He added a clipper bow to the vessel.

A bow fit for a pirate ship: Black Velvet’s third owner added this fiberglass clipper bow, complete with dolphin striker (that’s the vertical steel post supported by 4 chain stays) and a 10-foot plus bowsprit. The false bow is hollow and Matt hopes it might add extra protection in case “we crash into stuff”.

He also added the overhanging aft cabin. Built of fiberglass sheathing over an aluminum support structure, it featured transom windows constructed of plexiglass and caulk applied to resemble leaded glass window panes.

Aft cabin fit for a pirate

Oriental-based “Emily Brooke” as viewed through the aft cabin windows

Though he looked the part, Matt says Morey never took full time to the pirate lifestyle, prefering, rather to take his kids on pirate outings on the Chesapeake Bay. It was he who sold the vessel to Matt and Shana.

Cruising gear for a pirate ship: As Black Velvet’s third owner loaded her up for her new owners, he threw in lots of extra gear like sails and anchors. When he tossed in the plastic skull, he added, “you’re gonna need this”.

That was in early 2009. When they found her, she was a “mess”. The interior paneling was loose and there were wires “hanging everywhere”. The good news was, because she sported simple systems like a VW Rabbiet diesel engine, she could be easily fixed up.

Ship shape: Matt’s sketch of Keith Richards hangs in the newly tidied cabin house. Matt and Shana say they may fund their trip by selling their artwork.

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The new owners also changed the vessel’s name. Her previous owner had called her the “Jolly Morey”. Matt says he renamed her Black Velvet because like the whiskey of the same name, she’s “cheap, rough and gets the job done”

Black Velvet getting the job done in Oriental.

The third week of May 2009 her new owners set off on their dream voyage for Costa Rica.

The adventure begins

Originally Matt and Shana had hoped to sail offshore from Georgetown, Maryland to Costa Rica. Because other than sailing a sail board, Matt’s experience was “hardly anything”, their plan was to go in the ocean but “skim the shore”.

That’s when the adventure started.

At the head of the Chesapeake Bay, off Virginia Beach, their engine started stalling and their ship’s battery lost its charge. By connecting their gas generator to the battery, they kept it charged. Then the engine died and they ran aground. Matt says he felt like “God hated me.”

It got worse. While trying to back off the sandbar, a line went overboard, wrapping itself around the prop. This was solved by cutting the line, which allowed the prop to turn, pulling the vessel off the obstruction. When the engine started acting up again, Matt and Shana decided to go a marina to make repairs.

This meant passing under a low bridge.

Approaching the bridge, Matt says he “thought I had 35 feet”. He didn’t. The topmast, an aluminum mast extension atop Black Velvet’s main mast, struck the bridge which sent the spar tumbling. With the topmast tangled in the rigging, Matt scraped under the bridge and, upon clearing the span “ran aground immediately” to the great amusement of the crowd of dogs and spectators that had gathered to watch from shore.

Matt and ship’s bull dog Bruno show what’s left of the topmast after its encounter with a bridge

Bald headed: the mast after loosing the topmast.

Eventually they made the marina where they affected repairs. It’s that incident “that sparked the decision to take the IntraCoastal Waterway” instead of sailing offshore to Costa Rica.

After that rocky start, things started looking up. From Virginia Beach they proceeded to Oriental, where, aside from repairing a broken freeze plug on their engine, they found everything aboard Black Velvet “tight for now”.

All’s well in Oriental.

And from here? Matt and Shana still have every intent of heading for Costa Rica – only at a slower pace. After two days’ stay at the town dock, they continued their voyage south. From Oriental, they planned to head to Beaufort. reaching Florida by September or October. Because Black Velvet only draws 4 1/2 of water, they would consider traversing the center of the state via the Okeechobee Waterway. Or they might make their way around the bottom of the state via the Keys.

Costa Rica bound: Black Velvet resumes her voyage.

Whichever route they choose, whatever adventures they overcome, when it comes to making Costa Rica, Black Velvet’s crew figures they’re “gonna make it”. This is, after all, the pirate ship that came up from being a watering trough.

Posted Friday July 17, 2009 by Bernie Harberts

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