3/17/2023 0 Comments The skipper![]() ![]() He and his brother, Robert, grew up building backyard workboats on the shore of the Bay with their father. Dom Vitolo of Belmar, New Jersey, says that John Zeigler was a “tough old Dutchman” from the Tidewater region of Virginia on Chesapeake Bay. ![]() John Zeigler of New Brunswick, New Jersey, laid SKIPPER’s keel in 1938 and launched her from the shores of the Raritan River in 1941. Other common species include fluke, scup, and tautog.Ĭapt. According to the saltwater fishing website called Mike’s Maritime Memorabilia ( SKIPPER, dressed up in her red, white, and blue paint scheme like one of the many Victorian summer cottages in Oak Bluffs, is the oldest continuously operating party-fishing vessel in the United States.īlack sea bass is one of SKIPPER’s staple catches. But she’ll leave an impression if you ever meet John-O Potter or stop to consider his boat’s pedigree. More than a dozen medium-sized schooners and sloops designed by the likes of Alden and Herreshoff are permanent residents along with a Bristol-kept collection of wooden ketches, yawls, catboats, and motor launches.Īmid such thoroughbred glitz, an old workhorse such as SKIPPER could get overlooked. Sleek J-class racing yachts from the 1920s and former AMERICA’s Cup 12-Meter contenders are regularly part of the summer scene. Every summer a host of gleaming wooden sailing and motor yachts gathers at the Vineyard to bask in the renaissance of wooden boats rooted here. There are the Black Dog tall ships SHENANDOAH and ALABAMA and the custom schooners built by Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway, moored in Vineyard Haven Harbor. ![]() But maybe you have never given SKIPPER and these party fishers a second thought because Martha’s Vineyard has a lot of eye candy for boat lovers. If you have ever visited Martha’s Vineyard, the summer resort island about 5 miles off the south coast of Cape Cod, you have likely seen John-O Potter and his tattooed mate, Garreth Heath, along with a gaggle of happy bottom fishers twitching their rods as SKIPPER drifts with the tide off the point at East Chop or sits tied up along the seawall on the harbor at Oak Bluffs. It’s easy to overlook a modest working vessel such as SKIPPER, but she is, in fact, the longest continually operating party fishing boat in the United States. And everybody on this island knows this is a great scene.” “When you live on the Vineyard, you know a lot about boats and the people who run them. “The kids can’t get enough of the SKIPPER and Capt. SKIPPER supplies rods, bait, bags for the catch, and instruction. ![]() Like the birthday boy’s family, groups can charter SKIPPER for special occasions, but the boat mostly earns its bread and butter carrying individual anglers who pay $70 apiece (less for kids) for four-hour fishing excursions. She can carry 38 passengers and a crew of two. SKIPPER is what fishers commonly call a “party boat” and mariners call a “T-boat” (see sidebar, page 55). This is the boys’ fifth year in a row aboard SKIPPER for Milo’s birthday. They have come aboard the motor vessel SKIPPER for a bottom-fishing adventure to celebrate teammate Milo Sullivan’s birthday. The crew of novice “sinker-bobbers” is a Little League baseball team from the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. “Fishing,” they chorus as they fist-pump the blue sky. “Let’s go fishing,” he calls from the open door of the wheelhouse.Ī cheer rises from 15 nine-year-olds gathered with a few parent chaperons on the foredeck. “Watch this,” he says, and pulls on the cord. He stands in the tiny wheelhouse of his party-fishing boat, SKIPPER, and reaches overhead with his left hand for the horn cord. “John-O” Potter has a twinkle in his eyes. Vessels carrying six or fewer passengers are uninspected vessels, not T-boats. Except in rare instances, T-boats may not exceed 100 gross tons displacement and must carry fewer than 150 passengers. Coast Guard and American commercial mariners often refer to fishing party boats, along with other small passenger vessels (SPVs), as “T-boats” because they are inspected and certified annually under the provisions in Subchapter T, of Title 46 (Shipping) of the Code of Federal Regulations. ![]()
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