Save The SHALAMAR
Donation protected
Hello dear friends, family, Vieques Classic Charter customers, boaters, wooden boat lovers, sailors, Navy/US Coast Guard member, WW2 history buffs, and anyone and everyone who would like to help keep a beautiful piece of history, as well as a young families dream alive.
If I we haven't met, I'm McCoy Livingston and I was the first mate on the Shalamar, a 1941 Philip Rhodes Yawl on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. This historic boat served 3 years in WW2 in an arm of the Coast Guard that became known as the "Hooligan Navy." She was based out of Block Island, and would go on two week patrols looking for German mine fields. I had the pleasure of working for the previous owner who became my dear friend and mentor, Captain Sebastian Watt for nearly 4 years, with his business ViequesClassicCharter.com.
With a stroke of luck Sebastian decided to offer the opportunity of ownership to my wife and I, and a boys dream became a family mans reality. My wife Krissy Livingston, daughter Harper Jean Livingston and I took over the business in September of this year after a complete haul out. As some of you may know Vieques was hit with back-to-back category 5 hurricanes, Irma narrowly missing to the south, and Maria's eye wall sheering just north ravishing our beloved island.
In the storm, the winds combined with the storm surge tore Shalamar from her Hurricane hideaway and slammed her down violently in the mangroves. She sustained massive amounts of damage including but not limited to; broken bowsprit, broken chain plates on port side shrouds, broken port side rails, broken grab rails, broken mizzen boom, broken rudder, as well as bumps and bruises all down her port side, no punctures.
Upon initial assessment of myself, Sebastian, and a few other helpful opinions, we decided the damage was too much to salvage, with the state of the island, combined with lack of the means of funding such an undertaking. Just when all hope was lost, we were granted yet another stoke of luck. The U.S. Coast Guard has hired a private salvage company to lift Shalamar out of the mangroves using a crane barge, what happens next is up to me. The salvage company has offered to dispose of Shalamar at no cost or penalty to me, or I would be responsible for arranging for her to be transported and repaired.
With that being said I'd like to ask for any and all of your help! This boat does not deserve to be laid to rest after 76 years, and with your assistance she could sail and work again. I've only been luck enough to have sailed on Shalamar for the last 4 years but she is a part of me and I must help her.
Please help my family see our dreams realized again, and help the legacy of the Shalamar live on. Please help us make Hurricane Maria but a distant memory in our lives and the life of a beautiful, one of a kind, piece of mid 20th century history.
Please Donate if you can, if you can't please share with any and everyone you think may be willing and able to help/share. Between transport and repair it's going to be an expensive voyage, but, "Boat of Love" as Shalamar translates in Sandskrit, deserves it. Please like, share, email, pin, post, upload, and repost again. My family and I cannot thank you enough for any help you are able to give, we look forward to sailing with you, with any luck, on Shalamar.
If I we haven't met, I'm McCoy Livingston and I was the first mate on the Shalamar, a 1941 Philip Rhodes Yawl on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. This historic boat served 3 years in WW2 in an arm of the Coast Guard that became known as the "Hooligan Navy." She was based out of Block Island, and would go on two week patrols looking for German mine fields. I had the pleasure of working for the previous owner who became my dear friend and mentor, Captain Sebastian Watt for nearly 4 years, with his business ViequesClassicCharter.com.
With a stroke of luck Sebastian decided to offer the opportunity of ownership to my wife and I, and a boys dream became a family mans reality. My wife Krissy Livingston, daughter Harper Jean Livingston and I took over the business in September of this year after a complete haul out. As some of you may know Vieques was hit with back-to-back category 5 hurricanes, Irma narrowly missing to the south, and Maria's eye wall sheering just north ravishing our beloved island.
In the storm, the winds combined with the storm surge tore Shalamar from her Hurricane hideaway and slammed her down violently in the mangroves. She sustained massive amounts of damage including but not limited to; broken bowsprit, broken chain plates on port side shrouds, broken port side rails, broken grab rails, broken mizzen boom, broken rudder, as well as bumps and bruises all down her port side, no punctures.
Upon initial assessment of myself, Sebastian, and a few other helpful opinions, we decided the damage was too much to salvage, with the state of the island, combined with lack of the means of funding such an undertaking. Just when all hope was lost, we were granted yet another stoke of luck. The U.S. Coast Guard has hired a private salvage company to lift Shalamar out of the mangroves using a crane barge, what happens next is up to me. The salvage company has offered to dispose of Shalamar at no cost or penalty to me, or I would be responsible for arranging for her to be transported and repaired.
With that being said I'd like to ask for any and all of your help! This boat does not deserve to be laid to rest after 76 years, and with your assistance she could sail and work again. I've only been luck enough to have sailed on Shalamar for the last 4 years but she is a part of me and I must help her.
Please help my family see our dreams realized again, and help the legacy of the Shalamar live on. Please help us make Hurricane Maria but a distant memory in our lives and the life of a beautiful, one of a kind, piece of mid 20th century history.
Please Donate if you can, if you can't please share with any and everyone you think may be willing and able to help/share. Between transport and repair it's going to be an expensive voyage, but, "Boat of Love" as Shalamar translates in Sandskrit, deserves it. Please like, share, email, pin, post, upload, and repost again. My family and I cannot thank you enough for any help you are able to give, we look forward to sailing with you, with any luck, on Shalamar.
Organizer
Kristen Livingston
Organizer
Isla de Vieques, PR
