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Lots of boats come to Oriental, some tie up at the Town Dock for a night or two, others drop anchor in the harbor for a while. If you've spent any time on the water you know that every boat has a story. The Shipping News on TownDock.net brings you the stories of the boats that have visited recently.
July 17, 2009
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It 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 visitorShana Overby and Matt KemptonIt 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 AlfieShana, 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 cabinThen 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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Posted Friday July 17, 2009 by Bernie Harberts
