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Eerie moment sailors find ‘ghost ship’ with no soul on board

A sailor who stumbled across a “ghost ship” near Bermuda with no one on board described the discovery as “absolutely crazy”.

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This is the eerie moment sailors stumble across a ‘ghost ship’ drifting 804km from Bermuda with no one on board.

Two yachties from Ocean Research Project came across the abandoned boat in the Atlantic Ocean, The Sun reports .

The researchers noticed the boats sail wasn’t up, the motor wasn’t running and “there was no sign of anyone”.

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Worried that someone might be hurt, the pair decided to climb aboard and check it out.

Matt Rutherford, founder of Ocean Research Project and the first man to ever sail non-stop on his own around North and South America, filmed himself as he went in for a closer look.

“This is one awfully abandoned sailboat. Wolfhound from the Irish yacht club,” he said.

“I have no idea what’s inside, I’m going to go and search around and I hope I don’t find any dead bodies or anything.”

As he ventured inside the boat, Mr Rutherford said he was afraid to open doors and cabinets.

After having a look around, he said, “No dead bodies, thank God.

“This is absolutely crazy by the way — 800 miles from Bermuda, 1500 miles from the US, standing on a very nice Swan 48, in the middle of the ocean.”

The pair began dragging the boat behind their own, making it about 80 kilometres on the second day.

Mr Rutherford said, “It’s kinda funny, 48-foot boat with a 42-foot boat. We’re doing our best trying to get her to Bermuda.”

After spending 47 days at sea, the pair began running low on fuel so convinced a passing freighter to stop and give them some gas.

They continued to pull Wolfhound but eventually had to cut the tow line after it got wrapped around the rudder, and threatened to break it off.

According to online sleuths, the boat belonged to skipper Alan McGettigan from the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

He and crewmates Declan Hayes, Morgan Crowe and Tom Mulligan were rescued by a Greek cargo ship 102 kilometres north of Bermuda when their 48-foot yacht suffered two knockdowns in 20-foot waves and 50-knot winds.

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Mr McGettigan activated an emergency beacon and they left Wolfhound in the water.

Nine weeks later, it was stumbled upon by Matt and his team who filmed the recovery and posted the footage to social media this week.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

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WATCH: Irish "ghost ship" found drifting off coast of Bermuda

The irish 'ghost ship' - which came from the royal irish yacht club - was discovered off the coast of bermuda by matt rutherford and his colleagues from the ocean research project..

A sailor has shared footage of his discovery of an eerie Irish ghost ship drifting 800 miles off the coast of Bermuda. 

Matt Rutherford and his colleague from the Ocean Research Project found the abandoned yacht "somewhere in the Atlantic"  in 2013, but they only recently shared footage of the amazing discovery on YouTube.

"This is one awfully abandoned sailboat - Wolfhound from the Irish Yacht Club," Rutherford said in the video.

• African “ghost ship” washes ashore in Co Cork during Storm Dennis

Rutherford and his colleague noticed that the yacht's sail was not up and noted that the ship was "behaving strangely". 

"I have no idea what's inside, I'm going to go and search around and I hope I don't find any dead bodies or anything," Rutherford said in the footage of his discovery of the boat. 

The pair thankfully didn't find any dead bodies but found clothes and personal items strewn all over the yacht's cabin. 

"This is absolutely crazy by the way. Here I am, 800 miles from Bermuda, 1,500 miles from the US, standing on a very nice Swan 48, in the middle of the ocean."

Rutherford and his team towed the Irish ghost ship, despite it being 48 feet while his crew's boat was only 42 feet.

"We're doing our best to try to get her to Bermuda," Rutherford said. However, after fuel and engine problems, the Wolfhound was cut loose.

The yacht was skippered by Irish sailor Alan McGettigan, who made headlines in February 2013 when he and his crew were rescued about 70 miles north of Bermuda after departing Connecticut bound for Bermuda.

According to the Irish Times, "McGettigan, Declan Hayes, and Morgan Crowe all from the Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC), and Tom Mulligan from the neighbouring National Yacht Club (NYC) in Dún Laoghaire, were rescued by a cargo ship when their 48-foot yacht Wolfhound suffered two knockdowns and McGettigan activated an emergency beacon pinpointing their position."

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Sailors stumble on ‘ghost ship’ drifting in Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles from land

The boat was discovered some 800 miles away from bermuda, article bookmarked.

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Matt Rutherford and a colleague from the Ocean Research Project were sailing in the Atlantic Ocean in 2013 when they made a startling discovery : an abandoned ship floating some 800 miles beyond Bermuda.

Earlier this week, the Ocean Research Project released a video showing what happened when Mr Rutherford and his colleague spotted the boat and moved closer to investigate the situation.

“This is one awfully abandoned sailboat,” Mr Rutherford is heard saying in the footage.

Mr Rutherford decided to to go and see if there was anybody on the boat, saying he hoped he wouldn’t “find any dead bodies or anything.”

The interior of the boat, with personal effects strewn about

He did not find anyone on the boat dead or alive, and instead was left to wonder how an upscale boat that presumably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars new came to be completely abandoned and left floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

“This is absolutely crazy by the way,” Mr Rutherford says in the video. “800 miles from Bermuda, 1,500 miles from the US, standing on a very nice Swan 48, in the middle of the ocean.”

The boat appeared to have been abandoned quickly. When Mr Rutherford and his colleague came aboard and began looking around, they found clothes and other personal belongings were strewn about the main cabin. Mr Rutherford and his colleague initially tried to tow the boat with them, but only made it 50 miles before realising they needed to cut the other boat loose.

The Daily Mail reported that certain online aficionados believe that Mr Rutherford’s colleague on the journey was Alan McGettigan of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, though that detail is as of now unconfirmed.

Nearly a decade after the discovery of the boat, little remains known about how or why it came to be abandoned in the middle of the ocean.

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Eerie moment sailors find ‘ghost ship’ drifting hundreds of miles away from land in Atlantic Ocean with no soul on board

• Fiona Connor
• Published : 22:15, 28 Dec 2022
• Updated : 2:09, 29 Dec 2022
• Published : Invalid Date,

THIS is the eerie moment sailors stumble across a ‘ghost ship’ drifting 800 miles from Bermuda with no one on board.

Two yachties from Ocean Research Project came across the abandoned boat in the Atlantic Ocean.

The researchers noticed the boats sail wasn't up, the motor wasn't running and "there was no sign of anyone".

Worried that someone might be hurt, the pair decided to climb aboard and check it out.

One of the team members, Matt Rutherford, who was the first man to ever sail non-stop on his own around North and South America, filmed himself as he went in for a closer look.

He said: "This is one awfully abandoned sailboat. Wolfhound from the Irish yacht club.

"I have no idea what's inside, I'm going to go and search around and I hope I don't find any dead bodies or anything."

As he ventured inside the boat, Matt said he was afraid to open doors and cabinets.

After having a look around, he said: "No dead bodies, thank God.

"This is absolutely crazy by the way. 800 miles from Bermuda , 1,500 miles from the US, standing on a very nice Swan 48, in the middle of the ocean."

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The pair began dragging the boat behind their own, making it about 50 miles on the second day.

Matt said: "It's kinda funny, 48ft boat with a 42ft boat. We're doing our best trying to get her to Bermuda."

After spending 47 days at sea, the pair began running low on fuel so convinced a passing freighter to stop and give them some gas.

They continued to pull Wolfhound but eventually had to cut the tow line after it got wrapped around the rudder, and threatened to break it off.

According to online sleuths, the boat belonged to skipper Alan McGettigan from the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

He and crewmates Declan Hayes, Morgan Crowe and Tom Mulligan were rescued by a Greek cargo ship 64 miles north of Bermuda when their 48-ft yacht suffered two knockdowns during in 20-ft waves and 50 knots wind.

Alan activated an emergency beacon and they left Wolfhound in the water.

Nine weeks later, it was stumbled upon by Matt and his team who filmed the recovery and posted the footage to social media this week.

WATCH: Sailors Discover ‘Ghost Ship’ Floating Hundreds of Miles From Shore Near the Bermuda Triangle

Though a relatively small portion of the ocean, the Bermuda Triangle is surrounded by the most myth, legend, a real-life mystery by far, holding its place at the pinnacle of nautical ghost stories for centuries. In fact, some of the earliest Bermuda Triangle mysteries date back to the 1400s, when Christopher Columbus and his crew reported strange activity while sailing through the notorious stretch of the Atlantic.

It’s said that more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes have mysteriously vanished within the Triangle. Along with the sailors and pilots onboard. It wasn’t all that surprising, then, when a pair of sailors from the Ocean Research Project stumbled upon a ghost ship drifting some 800 miles off the coast of Bermuda with “no sign of anyone” on board.

Matt Rutherford and his colleague were exploring the Atlantic when they stumbled upon a sailboat exhibiting “strange behavior.” Worried that there might be a fellow sailor in need, they ventured closer. As they approached the boat, however, they realized that there was no one on board – no one alive, at least.

The sight was enough to strike fear into the heart of even a highly experienced sailor like Matt Rutherford. But not enough fear to prevent him from kayaking over to the ghost ship to explore further. “This is one awfully abandoned sailboat,” Rutherford said in a video documenting the sailboat . “Wolfhound from the Irish Yacht Club. I have no idea what’s inside. I’m going to go search around and I hope I don’t find any dead bodies or anything crazy like that.”

Sailors Identify Captain of Abandoned Ghost Ship

Climbing aboard the lonely ghost ship, Matt Rutherford found the cabin in complete disarray. It appeared that those on board had abandoned ship in a hurry, clothes and other belongings flung haphazardly across the furniture and floor.

“Parts of the ceiling had fallen down in some places,” Rutherford explained. “Some drawers had popped open, you could hear the water sloshing around … It was just the spookiest thing. It looked crazy in there. Like people had abandoned it in the middle of something.”

“This is absolutely crazy by the way,” the Ocean Research Project sailor continued. “Here I am, 800 miles from Bermuda, 1,500 miles from the United States, standing on a very nice Swan 48, in the middle of the ocean. Just this morning, I woke up on a 42-foot Colvin Gazelle.”

Somehow, the researchers were able to get in touch with the captain of the ghost ship, who offered them a reward if they towed it back to Bermuda. Unfortunately, however, the boat was far too large for their own small sailboat and the attempt to tow it nearly left them stranded in the Triangle as well.

The ship was reportedly abandoned around 10 years ago, when the then-newly bought yacht was left adrift in the Bermuda Triangle by those on board. The ship’s maiden voyage was meant to be a trip from Connecticut to Bermuda and then Antigua. About 400 miles off the coast of Delaware, however, a monstrous storm struck. The brutal winds and 20-foot waves caused the boat to lose power and suffer mechanical failure.

According to the rescued yachtsmen, the boat sank soon after their rescue. Looks like the legend of the Bermuda Triangle lives on, after all.

Old Salt Blog

A virtual port of call for all those who love the sea , hosted by nautical novelist rick spilman.

Update: Matt Rutherford and the Wolfhound – Swan 48 Still Adrift Despite Salvage Attempt

Matt Rutherford

In April we posted about a drifting Nautor Swan 48 sailboat named Wolfhound which had been abandoned in a storm just north of Bermuda in February by her owner, Alan McGettigan, and a crew of three. Initially, the boat was reported to have sunk, but nine weeks later the boat was sighted very much afloat, looking only slightly worse for the wear.

Then, at the end of July, Matt Rutherford literally sails into the story. Matt Rutherford  is the remarkable young sailor who completed a record breaking 309 day, more than 27,000 mile, non-stop circumnavigation of the Americas in April of 2012. He also raised over $100,000 for the Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating (CRAB.)  This year Matt was awarded the Ocean Cruising Club’s Jester Medal, for an outstanding contribution to the art of single-handed sailing.

Since completing his amazing solo-circumnavigation, Matt has founded and become the Executive Director of  Ocean Research Project , a non-profit designed to help scientists better understand the problems facing the oceans.

Their most recent voyage was to the Sargasso Sea-Gyre.  On day 55 of the expedition on the cat-ketch Ault , Matt Rutherford and Program Director and Field Operations Scientist,  Nicole Trenholm , saw a sailboat in the distance.  From the Ocean Research blog:

The day after we finished our research we were sitting on the back of the boat enjoying an early dinner. Nikki suddenly stopped eating and said ‘look there is a sail boat over there’. It looked strange to me as the sails were not up and it seemed to be drifting around. Our first thought was that someone might be in need of some assistance so we changed course and turned toward the drifting vessel. As we passed close by I yelled out ‘HELLO’ half expecting to see some unshaven desperate sailor pop his head out but nothing happened. Nikki warned me that if I went onboard the sailboat I might find a dead body. I had to see if someone was in danger so I jumped into our flimsy kayak and paddled over then climbed aboard the injured sailboat. After a full inspection of the boat I found that it was abandoned.

The boat was a 48 foot Swan named Wolfhound full of nice gear. I could have easily striped the boat but I wanted to do the right thing. I found the owners phone number and the number for his insurance company and called them both telling them I found Wolfhound the 48 foot Swan and asked them what they would like me to do. As expected the owner wanted his boat and asked if I could tow it to the Chesapeake Bay. I told him I would be lucky if I could tow it 715 miles to Bermuda. I thought the sailboat still had a lot of life left in her and we could use the salvage money. It was worth a try.

As reported by the Washington Post , the salvage offer was $45,000 to tow Wolfgang to Bermuda, over 700 miles away.   After pumping Wolfgang’s bilge and securing the rigging to the extent possible, they sat down to figure out what they would do next.

Nikki and I discussed our game plan. We didn’t have enough fuel to tow Wolfhound all the way to Bermuda so the next day I was going to kayak back to the Swan and pump out its fuel tank hoping to get at least 30 gallons of diesel. The next day I disconnected one of my ships batteries placed in in the kayak and paddled back to the Swan. I used a waste pump that I found which was brand new still in its box and my big group 31 battery that I brought and started to pump Wolfhounds fuel tank dry. I was disappointed when I only got 12 gallons of diesel. I tried to bring back a jerry can with the Kayak but the Kayak flipped, I was being drug behind the Swan with one hand on the kayak and the other hand on the swim ladder. I dragged myself and the kayak back onboard and decided there was no way to get my battery and three jerry jugs back to my boat using the little kayak.

After searching around I found a Zodiac inflatable on Wolfhound so I pumped it up and threw it overboard. At least now I have a good way to shuttle the 12 gallons of diesel and my big battery back to my boat. Then craziest thing happened. On the way back to my boat the bottom fell out of the dingy. One minute I’m just rowing along and the next minute I’m looking down at nothing but water. My 100 pound battery I brought with me had a line attached to it and the line nearly rapped around my leg. If it had it would have taken me to the bottom of the ocean with it. I struggled to get back to my boat and climbed aboard, but I did manage to save the 3 jerry cans that had the 12 gallons of fuel in them. Nikki and I set aside 20 gallons of fuel in reserve and decided if we can’t get Wolfhound to Bermuda with the remaining fuel then we cut her loose and use the 20 gallons of reserve fuel to get to Bermuda without her.

The next day we spotted a freighter and asked the freighter if it could spare 50 gallons of diesel. At first they were hesitant but when the saw that we were towing a sailboat the freighter agreed to help. I had to pull up next to a slow moving freighter, stay 10 feet from its hull and maintain a prefect course in order to get the fuel. It took every bit of skill I had to hold my boat in that position for an hour as the guys on the freighter lowered one jerry jug at a time down to Nikki. It was absolutely nerve racking. You never want to be that close to a freighter in the open ocean, but if we could pull it off we would have enough fuel to easy tow the boat to Bermuda .

Unfortunately, the fuel from the ship was dirty and shut down the Ault ‘s engine.  They attempted to start the Wolfgang’s engine, with no luck.   Any hope of towing Wolfhound to Bermuda ended.   With, no doubt, mixed feelings, they cut the towline and set Wolfgang adrift.  And so adrift Wolfgang remains.

To learn more about Matt Rutherford, Nicole Trenholm, and Ocean Research Project, click here.

Thanks to John Steele for passing the story along.

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Abandoned Boat in 2013 Identified

(dailymail.co.uk) – In 2013 Matt Rutherford and a colleague from the Ocean Research Project were sailing approximately 800- miles from Bermuda when they came across an abandoned ship (see video here). The video was shared online last week and now online sleuths have determined that Wolfhound , a Swan 48 had been skippered by Alan McGettigan, of the Royal Irish Yacht Club. The boat had suffered a knock-down and the crew put out a distress call and were rescued by a Greek freighter. Read more.

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Sailors stumble on ‘ghost ship’ drifting in Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles from land

Matt Rutherford and a colleague from the Ocean Research Project were sailing in the Atlantic Ocean in 2013 when they made a startling discovery : an abandoned ship floating some 800 miles beyond Bermuda.

Earlier this week, the Ocean Research Project released a video showing what happened when Mr Rutherford and his colleague spotted the boat and moved closer to investigate the situation.

“This is one awfully abandoned sailboat,” Mr Rutherford is heard saying in the footage.

Mr Rutherford decided to to go and see if there was anybody on the boat, saying he hoped he wouldn’t “find any dead bodies or anything.”

He did not find anyone on the boat dead or alive, and instead was left to wonder how an upscale boat that presumably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars new came to be completely abandoned and left floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

“This is absolutely crazy by the way,” Mr Rutherford says in the video. “800 miles from Bermuda, 1,500 miles from the US, standing on a very nice Swan 48, in the middle of the ocean.”

The boat appeared to have been abandoned quickly. When Mr Rutherford and his colleague came aboard and began looking around, they found clothes and other personal belongings were strewn about the main cabin. Mr Rutherford and his colleague initially tried to tow the boat with them, but only made it 50 miles before realising they needed to cut the other boat loose.

The Daily Mail reported that certain online aficionados believe that Mr Rutherford’s colleague on the journey was Alan McGettigan of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, though that detail is as of now unconfirmed.

Nearly a decade after the discovery of the boat, little remains known about how or why it came to be abandoned in the middle of the ocean.

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Matt Rutherfords solo voyage around the Americas

It has been four months since Annapolis, Md., sailor Matt Rutherford set out from Chesapeake Bay aboard a 27-foot Albin Vega sloop. His intent — to sail single-handed, east to west through the Northwest Passage, south to Cape Horn and back to the Chesapeake — a 23,000-nautical-mile journey around the Americas. If he succeeds he will become the first person to complete the challenging trip solo. Rutherford is undertaking the voyage to benefit Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating, a group that makes sailing a reality for the disabled.

Rutherford is well on his way. He has successfully transited the Northwest Passage ahead of the ice and is now southbound through Alaskan waters. If all goes according to plan he hopes to round Cape Horn by early March 2012 and make his way home before next year’s Caribbean hurricane season. At 80 miles a day the entire voyage will take about 10 and a half months — non-stop.

For more information on the voyage and Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating visit Rutherford’s website at www.solotheamericas.org.

By Ocean Navigator

Ocean researchers find yacht abandoned near Bermuda

Two researchers have released footage from their encounter with a mysterious, abandoned yacht off the coast of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean.

The footage shows Matt Rutherford, an accomplished sailor and marine researcher, spot the Swan 48 yacht on the horizon before boarding to find no signs of life.

"Well, this is one awfully abandoned sailboat," he said in the video, originally shot in 2013 and released to the public this week.

"I'm going to search around, I hope I don't find any dead bodies," he said.

Footage shows Mr Rutherford sheepishly opening cupboards and rooms, saying to the camera he is afraid of what he might find.

But he found only empty beds and a messy cabin, saying the boat was left in "an absolute wreck."

"No dead bodies, thank god," he said.

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The researcher emphasised how "crazy" the situation was, before making attempts to tow the boat to shore.

The boat was spotted drifting almost 1300 kilometres off the coast of Bermuda and 2400 kilometres from the east coast of the US.

After towing the boat for 24 hours, the ocean researchers were compelled to cut the yacht adrift after the towline tangled around their rudder.

The site is not far from the Bermuda triangle, an area famous for mysterious disappearances.

Further questions about the fate of the yacht's crew remain unanswered.

Anna Houlahan

Reach out with news or updates to [email protected]

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Ocean researchers find yacht abandoned near Bermuda

Two researchers have released footage from their encounter with a mysterious, abandoned yacht off the coast of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean.

The footage shows Matt Rutherford, an accomplished sailor and marine researcher, spot the Swan 48 yacht on the horizon before boarding to find no signs of life.

"Well, this is one awfully abandoned sailboat," he said in the video, originally shot in 2013 and released to the public this week.

"I'm going to search around, I hope I don't find any dead bodies," he said.

Footage shows Mr Rutherford sheepishly opening cupboards and rooms, saying to the camera he is afraid of what he might find.

But he found only empty beds and a messy cabin, saying the boat was left in "an absolute wreck."

"No dead bodies, thank god," he said.

IN OTHER NEWS:

• In Memoriam: Remembering the people we lost in 2022
• 'It can be traumatic': Hospitality workers juggle exhaustion and poor nutrition
• Getting sci-fi off, or out of, your chest

The researcher emphasised how "crazy" the situation was, before making attempts to tow the boat to shore.

The boat was spotted drifting almost 1300 kilometres off the coast of Bermuda and 2400 kilometres from the east coast of the US.

After towing the boat for 24 hours, the ocean researchers were compelled to cut the yacht adrift after the towline tangled around their rudder.

The site is not far from the Bermuda triangle, an area famous for mysterious disappearances.

Further questions about the fate of the yacht's crew remain unanswered.

Anna Houlahan

Reach out with news or updates to [email protected]

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Voyage Photos

Below is a selection of voyage photos from Matt Rutherford’s solo, nonstop sail around the America’s via the Arctic’s Northwest Passage and Cape Horn off the tip of South America. Matt is the first person to transit the northwest passage solo, nonstop in a sailboat, and the first person sail solo, nonstop around the Americas. These feats earned Matt two Guinness  World Records.

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Matt Rutherford and the first solo nonstop circumnavigation of the Americas

In 2011, Matt Rutherford set out to become the first person to ever sail around the Americas. He had a 40-year old, 27-foot long sailboat – the St. Brendan. As this was a solo voyage, he was alone. And as this was nonstop, he could not put into port, drop anchor, connect himself to another vessel, or beach the boat. This was all pretty amazing considering Rutherford’s troubled teen years – which included five felonies. 

Matt Rutherford and the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the Americas – Part 1

In part one of our series, we discuss the life of Matt Rutherford leading up to his voyage, plus the preparations for audacious undertaking. We then lead you through the most dangerous part of Rutherford’s voyage – the Northwest Passage.

Download this episode  or  listen online .

Matt Rutherford and the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the Americas – Part 2

In part 2 of our series, Matt Rutherford sails his 40-year old, 27-foot long sailboat – the St. Brendan – south. There, he rounds the Cape Horn and heads home – dealing with storms, broken ribs, a near collision with a freighter, plus a boat that was slowly sinking.

Download this episode  or  listen online .

Matt Rutherford and the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the Americas – Part 3 – Interview

In the final part of our series on Matt Rutherford, I conducted an extensive interview with the man – talking about his voyage, his life since the circumnavigation, and much, much more.

This map is from the solotheamericas.com website – which chronicles Rutherford’s voyage. The route shown was the proposed route. It’s mostly accurate – but know that the route actually took Rutherford much further west – out in the Pacific – as well as further east in the Atlantic.

“ Red Dot on the Ocean ” – Documentary about Rutherford’s voyage.

Solo the Americas website . Chronicles Rutherford’s voyage. Includes photos and a map.

Ocean Research Project – The nonprofit Rutherford started after his voyage. The organization is dedicated to scientific exploration under sail in pursuit of the knowledge necessary to better understand human-induced stress on the Ocean.

Single-Handed Sailing Podcast – Matt Rutherford’s podcast.

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 Posted on May 12, 2020 by Randall

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Many of you will know of Matt Rutherford from the several mentions of him in this blog or, more likely, from his remarkable 2012 circumnavigation of the Americas in an already old and always small, twenty-seven-foot sloop, St Brendan .

I’ll warrant there are more than a few blue-water sailors who wouldn’t cruise the Bahamas in such a craft, much less aim for a transit of the Northwest Passage and a doubling of Cape Horn in a 314-day solo, non-stop Boston-to-Boston loop. Such is the stuff of legend.

What you may not know is that Matt has continued his pursuit of the seemingly impossible, though in a slightly more conventional vein. He has substituted pure adventure for adventuresome research and has swapped tiny St. Brendan for the mammoth, muscular, but unfinished schooner, Marie Tharp.

That story is covered in detail in this month’s issue of Cruising World (see below). I’ll cut to the chase: the key word is unfinished , as in this capable vessel is lacking an interior, a good deal of paint, and many of the finer things, like winches. For that, Matt, his partner, scientist Nikki Trenholm, and their creation, The Ocean Research Project , need your assistance.

Check out the fine story about Matt’s dream below, and if you can, send him some help here .

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Matt Rutherford’s Arctic Research Dreams

By  Angus Phillips May 6, 2020. Skipper Matt Rutherford and scientist Nikki Trenholm have an ambitious long-term plan to conduct important climate research in the high latitudes. First they need to fix up their “new” boat.

Everyone knows there’s no such thing as a free boat. Just don’t tell Matt Rutherford, who can gaze from the deck of his latest one—which he hopes will take him to the ends of the earth—to the tarnished remains of his former one, which already did.

Pretty little  St. Brendan  lies these days on the hard, at the end of a gravel lane of old-timers that have seen better times and places. Eight years ago, in one of the great sea-voyaging triumphs of all time, Rutherford sailed the donated 27-foot, 40-year-old Albin Vega from Annapolis, Maryland, back to Annapolis—via the Northwest Passage and Cape Horn, some 27,000 nautical miles in 309 days, nonstop and singlehanded at an average rate of 3.5 knots (see “Fortitudine Vincimus,” July 2012).

Now  St. Brendan , named for an Irish cleric who braved the uncharted North Atlantic in a leather curragh 1,500 years ago, sits on jack stands at Herrington Harbor North near Annapolis, waiting like a sleepy old dog at a shelter for a softhearted buyer who may never materialize. Rutherford can see her easily from the steel deck of his newest project, the massive sailing vessel  Marie Tharp , which sits just two rows away and towers above everything. She’s so big, he had to buy a 20-foot extension ladder just to get up the side. 

The schooner is 72 feet long from bowsprit to massive, barn-door transom, custom-built of fine Dutch steel following lines drawn by heralded offshore-yacht designer Bruce Roberts. Fully outfitted for sea, she’ll weigh a staggering 115,000 pounds, more than 20 times the displacement of little  St. Brendan .

The price for both was the same: zero. And, of course, both needed work, which is right up Rutherford’s alley.

I first met Rutherford in 2010, when he was rooting around Annapolis looking for help on a most unpromising project. He’d been working as a volunteer fixing up boats for Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating, a local nonprofit with a clever acronym—CRAB— whose mission is to get disabled folks out sailing for recreation. He and the group’s founder, Don Backe, who had lost use of his legs in a car crash, hatched the idea of Rutherford taking a donated CRAB boat “around the Americas” to raise money for and awareness of the group’s mission. The aged Vega was wasting away in a boatyard then, but Rutherford saw in it the makings of an adventure he’d long wanted to tackle.

“I went down in the cabin and lay down on the bunk one day, and it fit me. I thought,  This can work! ”

He spent months ­dumpster-diving and cajoling bits of gear from local enablers, most of whom (including me) thought the whole idea was nuts. And he worked like a farmer, largely alone, installing bulkheads and a Samson post, redoing rigging, fitting sails and cramming the little craft with freeze-dried food, an old bladder tank for diesel that completely covered the cabin floor, a hand-­operated watermaker, sea anchors, radios, navigation gear, boots and foulies.

When he left Annapolis heavily laden in June 2011, few thought we’d ever see the then-30-year-old or his little boat again. When he popped back up at City Dock the following April, having survived the most perilous marine obstacles on Earth, the governor and local sailing celebrity Gary Jobson were there to greet him, along with hundreds more. He was a penniless hero, having left with $30 and come back with the same thin, soggy wallet.

Rutherford, who grew up rough and rowdy in the Rust Belt of Ohio, was used to being broke. But he leveraged his short, bright fame well, giving paid talks about his trip and making connections that helped him set up a nonprofit, the Ocean Research Project, dedicated to doing scientific research to save the aqueous two-thirds of the planet. He also found a fine partner, Nicole Trenholm, who is almost as fearless as him. Together they have gone to the ends of the earth, more than once.

Rutherford’s goal, ever since he graduated from an alternative high school for troubled kids at age 20, has been to roam the globe and do some good. He’s never had two nickels to rub together but figured out early that a sailboat costs nothing to operate as long as you stay away from land, and he’s grown adept at getting free or almost-free sailboats in which to do that.

His first was a Coronado 25 bought sight unseen for $2,000. When he went to claim it in a Maryland boatyard, “the weeds were higher than the boat.” He and an old Ohio girlfriend, knowing nothing about boats or the sea, patched it up, evicted the mud daubers, and made it to Key West before three straight hurricanes did the boat in. He acquired a succession of storm-damaged beaters after that, the last of which, a Pearson 323, took him solo across the Atlantic, down the West Africa coast, and back home.

He eventually fetched up on that boat, broke again, in Annapolis, where Backe and the Albin Vega awaited. Trenholm popped up shortly after Rutherford’s voyage around the Americas. He wowed her at a yacht-club talk he gave, and she wowed him when she said she was a budding scientist specializing in the marine environment—just what he needed to lend credibility to his nonprofit. She’s now a doctoral candidate in marine climate science at the University of Maryland at Towson, studying when she’s not off at sea with Rutherford.

They did most of their traveling on  Ault , a 42-foot steel cat-ketch Rutherford bought with the gains from his voyage around the Americas and some borrowed cash from family. It was a rust-streaked wreck that needed 12 steel plates welded on by an unemployed motorcycle mechanic before it could be trusted to leave the bay.

You’d see Rutherford and Trenholm around town that summer, looking like a pair of Welsh coal miners fresh from the job site, in tattered rags streaked with dust and grease. It was hot, as always for the Chesapeake, and as damp as a jungle, but Trenholm gave as good as she got with sander, chipper and paintbrush, and after a shower, she still looked like a movie star—without the peroxide hair.

They took the refurbished  Ault  across the Atlantic and back, gathering plastic bits and pieces for an unpaid study on a suspected garbage gyre in a remote patch west of the Azores. Then they crossed the Pacific from California to Japan in a borrowed Harbor 29 doing the same thing, arriving days before a typhoon struck that would have sunk them and all their data forever.

Back home, they readied  Ault , which cruises at 4 knots and “goes to weather like a well-trimmed refrigerator,” in Rutherford’s assessment, for two summers of research in the Arctic. They charted the bottom in uninhabited Greenland fjords well above the 70th parallel north, and studied currents and temperature variations for NASA. They found evidence of a mysterious, deep warm-water current that’s eating away at glaciers from below. For the second of those missions, having proved their worth, they actually got paid, though barely enough to cover costs.

Scientists believe climate- change research is crucial in the high latitudes, where the effects of man’s addiction to fossil fuels is felt most severely, and Rutherford and Trenholm came back from the Arctic convinced there’s a niche for small, efficient and inexpensive platforms like  Ault , and now  Marie Tharp , to do that kind of work.

Most Arctic research falls to big, powerful research vessels that carry teams of scientists in comfort and style. Trenholm took part in one last summer, working for three-and-a-half weeks on a chartered Swedish icebreaker that had every convenience, including a sauna and a pingpong table. “We dressed for dinner. It was like a vacation,” she says.

But all that luxury comes at a price. “I was on a $6 million expedition,” Trenholm says, “and it showed me how much more Matt and I are capable of doing at a fraction of the cost.”

Rutherford reckons that the average cost of a big research vessel working in the Arctic is about $25,000 a day. “We can operate for one-tenth that,” he says, “and because the new scientific equipment is smaller and less power-hungry, we can do anything they can do.”

If small is good,  Ault  was unfortunately a bit too small. While their two summers in the Arctic were fruitful, the little steel boat was big enough only for Rutherford, Trenholm, and a deckhand or two. Rutherford was ruminating one day on his podcast,  Singlehanded Sailing , about how much better they could do with a bigger boat, and his thoughts wandered to a vision of a steel Bruce Roberts 65-footer—a design he considered perfect for the job: big enough for a scientific team of four to stay in relative comfort, with berths for himself as captain and a crew of two or three, but still cheap to operate.

Amazingly, a random listener knew where just such a boat lay languishing and put them in touch with the owner, Zan Ricketson, a dreamer who’d spent 18 years building it up from bare hull and rig for a planned grand adventure in the high latitudes but was about ready to give up. The boat was in the water in Delaware. 

“It was about 80 percent finished,” said Rutherford, who rushed up to the C&D Canal for a look-see and immediately began badgering Ricketson to donate it to the Ocean Research Project. The deal closed in 2018, and early the next spring, Rutherford got the freshly rebuilt, 212-horsepower Ford diesel fired up, and brought the boat south to Herrington Harbor, where she was hauled and blocked for a refit.

He named her  Marie Tharp  in honor of a hero of his and other seafarers. Tharp was a scientist in the 1950s who labored in relative obscurity creating three-dimensional images of the seafloor using data from sonar readings that had never been coordinated into a usable format. “She painstakingly took these numbers to create a map showing the ridges and valleys and contours of the seafloor, worldwide,” Rutherford says. 

“Her boyfriend got most of the credit. She wasn’t even allowed on a boat in the beginning—they didn’t want women aboard.” Others in his position might have waited to name their flagship for some wealthy sponsor. But don’t even ask Matt Rutherford, champion of the downtrodden, to call his boat  Amway Explorer  or  Jiffy Lube Jet . It just ain’t gonna happen.

About the boat: She’s impressive if you don’t get too close. Massive, of course, with a good 8 feet of freeboard above an expansive, long-keel bottom. It was built by venerated steel-boat builder Howdy Bailey in his yard near Norfolk, Virginia, from steel cut to order from the best quarter-inch-thick Dutch stock. Rust? Well, sure, there’s a bit if you start chipping away, but it all appears repairable with some skillful welding.

The deck is flush, with a big, enclosed center cockpit that Rutherford intends to fortify with more steel bracing and new, shatterproof windows. There are watertight steel bulkheads fore and aft, so smashing into an iceberg or two will not prove fatal. Two anchors are mounted in the bow, with 700 feet of chain led to lockers amidships to keep the weight out of the pointy end.

The shiny, 6-cylinder Ford diesel has just 85 hours since a full rebuild and lives in an airy engine room, alongside a Kubota 24-volt generator that has never been fired up and is capable of powering a watermaker in addition to making electricity. Fuel capacity is 800 gallons, cruising speed is 7.5 knots, and Rutherford expects he’ll burn 3.3 gallons an hour, giving the boat a 1,500-mile range under power. The engine ran well on the 80-mile run from Delaware to the yard.

The rig is stout, with keel-stepped masts. Sails are brand- new, still in the original bags, and he expects to use them a lot. “When we get on-site, it will mostly be motoring as we collect data, but as long as there’s wind, we intend to sail the boat whenever we’re in open water,” Rutherford says. 

Inside is a mess, to be blunt. A lot of work has been started, but little is finished. There’s a forecastle big enough for four bunks for crew, a nice head with separate shower just aft of that, a galley amidships on the starboard side (with no cooking equipment installed), a big saloon aft of the main mast, and two cabins beyond that: one for the captain’s quarters and another for a scientific crew of up to four. Forward of the saloon, on the opposite side of the boat from the galley, is a work chamber for scientific equipment.

Everywhere you look, plywood and framing lumber, batteries, tools and gadgets are strewn about. It looks like a third-grade schoolroom if the teacher disappeared for a month or two.

Rutherford reckons it will cost about $100,000 to finish up everything needed. At the end of the day, he’ll have a seaworthy, spartan platform to conduct Arctic research in, but there are no plans for saunas or pingpong rooms. His hope is that the spirit of adventure and the chance to conduct important research at a fraction of the usual cost will lure scientists who are serious about tackling the perils of climate change.

He and Trenholm are passionate about the mission. They believe that understanding climate change in the Arctic is crucial to ­understanding this global phenomenon in its infancy. “We published a pretty important study on the way warm-­water intrusion is eating the glaciers from the bottom up,” Rutherford says. “The next step is to tie warming water and glacial melting to changes in plankton growth, which is the basis of the food chain.”

As for the $100,000 or so they’ll need to get the job done, they’re on the prowl. Rutherford makes some money selling boats as a broker for Eastport Yacht Sales in Annapolis. He’s doing deliveries, having recently taken a big Beneteau across the pond to the Mediterranean. He had a deal this past winter to take paying riders along on voyages to and around the Caribbean on a borrowed boat. Trenholm’s applying for government grants. They’re interviewing potential sugar daddies. If you know any, pass the word via the Ocean Research Project website, or listen to a  Singlehanded Sailing podcast for details (see “Help Launch the Dream,” below).

“It’s all about who you know,” Rutherford says. “And it’s not easy. They all say, ‘It’s great, awesome, a wonderful project—but not for us.’’’

If it were anyone but Matt Rutherford, I would probably say the same. We all thought he was off his meds when he was ricocheting around Annapolis nine years ago, muttering about a preposterous scheme to sail around the world the longitudinal way in a battered old North Sea weekender. And again when he shot out the Golden Gate in a borrowed club racer with his girlfriend, in a half-gale, bound for Yokohama.

We shook our heads and clucked our tongues when he left the Chesapeake in a steel tub with unstayed masts and a 30-year-old Perkins 4-108, bound for the Arctic at the pace of a kid’s tricycle. And then we applauded each time he came back, having accomplished what he’d set out to do. He’s got a track record.

The new project with  Marie Tharp  is daunting, with unfinished business everywhere you look: holes to patch, deckhouse to build, plumbing to finish, electronics to install, furniture to find, watermaker, beds, insulation, stove, fridge, sinks and headliners. Where to even begin?

Fortitudine Vincimus  was the family credo of Ernest Shackleton, Rutherford’s idol, who brought his men safely home from the wreck of his flagship in the Antarctic a century ago, after luring them there by advertising: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of compete darkness. Constant Danger. Safe return doubtful.”

“By Endurance We Conquer” is the translation. Those are words to live by for a fellow who has seen the remotest corners of the world from the decks of boats nobody else wanted. “I guess it would have been nice to be born a rich kid,” Rutherford says. “But then I never would have done any of these things. I’d just be a lazy rich kid.” 

Angus Phillips is a longtime Chesapeake Bay-based racing and cruising sailor, former outdoor columnist for  The Washington Post , and frequent contributor to  CW .

Help Launch The Dream

Matt Rutherford is and always has been a driven sailor, and has financed many of his adventures through yacht deliveries and contributions to his nonprofit dedicated to Arctic exploration and research. To learn more about Matt, and Nicole’s backgrounds, accomplishments and future endeavors, or to make a donation to the cause,  visit his website .

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2 Comments on “ Help Launch Marie Tharp, Matt Rutherford’s Arctic Research Vessel ”

Very interesting and thanks for the heads up on Matt’s recent work

Very good article. Great story. Inspirational. Thank you. Cheers to Matt and Nicole!

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Rutherford Sets Record

• By Yachting Staff
• Updated: April 23, 2012

On April 21, solo sailor Matt Rutherford set foot on land for the first time in 314 days. Just three days earlier, he entered the record books as the first sailor to sail over 25,000 miles around the Americas solo and non-stop. The 31-year-old completed the journey in a 27-foot Albin Vega sailboat.

He arrived to a large welcome from hundreds at the Annapolis City Dock in Maryland:

Although my boat was small and my budget meager it was my unwavering determination and previous sailing experience that got me through. We are all capable of incredible things; all you have to do is believe in yourself. I thank you all for following along during the trip. It’s been a great adventure and although the trip has been hard it’s also been very enjoyable.

Read more blog entries on his website.

Rutherford set out on his adventure to raise $250,000 for Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB). Find out more about Rutherford’s audacious voyage.

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