High and Dry:Stella Drives Sailboat Onto Short Beach; Creates Traffic Jam as People Take a Look

By Kate Anslinger

Last week, Winter Storm Stella brought in some massive waves and disrupted the shoreline with powerful winds that reached speeds of 40 miles per hour. While Winthrop didn’t see nearly as much snow as was predicted, the whiteout conditions made the storm a force to be reckoned with and as part of the aftermath, an unknown sailboat washed up on Short Beach in Revere.

As soon as the 1981 Hunter 33 sailboat was spotted, the Coast Guard was called up and soon tracked down owners John Chapman and Thomas Carritte of Lynn. The father-in-law and son-in-law duo had the boat tied up at the Seaport Landing, until the robust winds caused the boat to untether from the dock. According to Chapman, it traveled from the white tank that can be seen on the shoreline in Lynn and made it’s way across the water, washing up on Short Beach.

“I was heartbroken when I found out our boat was gone,” said Chapman, who has many memories of sailing the boat to Martha’s Vineyard and World’s End. “This is a family boat.”

Word travels fast on the North Shore, and soon volunteers were coming forward to offer their equipment, tools and manpower to help with getting the boat back in the water. Eager to be of assistance, volunteers gathered on Short Beach on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and went to work assessing the situation and putting together a plan for getting the boat back to its home.

If Chapman and Carritte opt to have the boat removed by crane and transported via land, the cost would be upwards of $16,000, so they need all the help they can get.

Carritte, who is a Marine Corps veteran and completed two tours in Afghanistan, stayed on the boat overnight to make sure it didn’t get ransacked when he first discovered that it had made it’s way to Short Beach.

Chapman and Carritte’s hope is to get the boat back in the water and have it transported back to its home by Sea Tow.