At the end of January last year the Gunboat 55 Rainmaker was dismasted in a violent squall off Cape Hatteras. Her crew was taken off by helicopter, and the boat was abandoned. A long and fruitless air search for the stricken cat ensued, to no avail.
The wreck was sighted by a passing ship in June last year, and then it vanished in the trackless Atlantic—until last February, when fishermen found it drifting off Bermuda.
The hulk was towed into St. Georges, where, at time of writing, it was residing on a mooring. Even after drifting in the Atlantic for a year, Rainmaker looked in surprisingly good shape, bar a luxurious coating of barnacles and weed. The nature of the carbon fiber composite construction is such that the boat may very well be repairable and able to sail again. Project boat, anyone?
MHS Summer 2016
