The Salvaging of a Chesapeake Bay Buy Boat

The M.V. Winnie Estelle

Literally like the Phoenix rising from its ashes to fly again the Winnie Estelle has been transformed from a derelict and stripped wreck listing on a beach off the coast of Belize, Central America.

We first encountered the Winnie Estelle through her owner, Captain Dave, a Bermudian who spent much of his time with the Winnie in the Caribbean waters of Belize. The story goes that Capt. Dave originally purchased the Winnie Estelle in Virginia and sailed her to Belize to haul Pine lumber from Honduras to Belize. Which he did for many years as our friend Russell can attest to as part of her crew during that time. Sometime in the late seventies we heard that Dave lost his life in a plane crash. He piloted his plane as he did his boat. A turn to the direction, a look at the compass, and a wave of the hand in the direction that felt correct. Boats, however, are more forgiving than planes. Dave was gone and we missed him, his hard line always smiling face was no longer with us. It was years later, around eighty-five or eighty-six that we heard about the fate of his beautiful boat, the Winnie Estelle. The sixty-six foot Island Freighter had been passed around from owner to owner and had finally found it's resting place on the quay. Sitting in contrast to the sparkling pristine waters of the Caribbean she was bent and broken stripped and left to be eventually pounded into a mound on the beach.

This, however, was not to happen. From the moment I heard of the Winnie's location I found thoughts going through my head of salvage rights. A free boat I thought. Why not. I gathered a consortium of trusted and experienced cohorts around me. Captain Roberto, an accomplished crew boat captain who had spent many of his younger years plying the waters off Belize aboard his Chinese Junk. And Russell now a lumber broker who cut his teeth in the lumber industry hauling pine aboard the Winnie Estelle. Capt. Roberto had found her and was willing to pull her off of the beach and tow her to Jones Boat Yard. It would be a tribute to the memory of Dave. We would and could restore her. Six months tops we figured. Don, the third and motivating force of our three man group would help organized the effort. The decision was made! Captain Roberto was on a plane for Belize and the next day was making arrangements to tow the Winnie off the beach. Three days later the tide rose high enough and off she slid at the end of a towing cable headed by the small diesel powered boat Captain Roberto was able to procure.

In the states we got the news that the Winnie Estelle had arrived at Jones Boat Yard, we anxiously awaited the evaluation. The word came. We will need money and we will need courage. Not much left of her. "She's all there, but she's also decayed". New wood, we need lots of new wood.

Now she was safe in the harbor of the boat yard with many others floating side by side. Would she return to the pristine waters? That depended on us. Beg borrow and steal for her. She needed everything. Six months turned into a year and a year turned into two years and two years became three years, then five, but there was progress all along the way. Every plank was replaced and the lumber used was hauled out of the forest by Captain Roberto, milled and dried. He had to have the right wood. The right wood was Caribbean Heart Pine out of Honduras. The very same pine that she had hauled for so many years. All the planking was cut from this Caribbean Heart Pine and Local Belizian hard wood was used for the framing. Captain Roberto had a way of doing things perfectly, he is an ultimate Virgo. It took time lots of time but the work was solid, it was tight, it was perfect.

It took us over five years to finish the Winnie Estelle. Maybe you can see her Dave. She is beautiful!

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