Trumpy 410, "Tireless" sunk during hurricane Irma

Hey Bob,

Not much more I can add to Baltimore Bob's first post. This truly was a sad four days. We gave it our best shot. Thanks for your efforts Bob and Steve. Though we try we can't save them all.

Tireless was my neighbor for the winter of ‘16/17, and I knew the liveaboard owners. They poured their heart and soul, time and money into keeping Tireless afloat. To say they neglected her is both inaccurate and uninformed.

Sorry catainwjm,

But your answer is inaccurate and uniformed. They may have poured their heart and soul into "keeping Tireless afloat" but definitely not doing what was really needed. She was kept afloat with a 12v pump running constantly and the bilge cycling on and off to help out. They didn't do the maintenance that a boat like this requires for many, many years. The decay in all areas of this boat didn't happen since Irma, didn't happen over the past year, didn't happen over the past four or five years.

Baltimore Bob, myself and a third gentlemen spent four intimate days on this boat trying to save her. If Tireless was a woman she would feel violated I was poking around and looking at so many intimate areas of this girl. I personally was in the water for hours over three days inspecting and filling holes and stuffing things in the holes. I was in the crew cabin and galley while she was still on the bottom, I was in the engine compartment trying to patch holes in the exhaust system trying to stop the water from coming in. My eyes saw the marine tex patch on the manifold. I was in the lazzarette watching the water streaming in like someone had turned on a garden hose. It was my foot that went trough the starboard deck at the front of the house. The softball sized hole that was covered in duct tape that was UV rotted. I stuffed the nerf ball in the hole so the water we were trying to pump out didn't run right back in.

And yes, I have photos, lots and lots of photos to prove it.

Memories of a Beautiful Lady


As a young professional yacht captain in the early 1970's my slip at Fishers Island Yacht Club was just a couple slips down from this magnificent lady, Tireless. It was the waning days of these beautiful yachts being owned by "old money" and crewed by full time captains. It was before owning a vessel of consequence required a return on investment by chartering the boat and crew. These yachts were for the pleasure of the owner and family. My boat was a 1957 42" Matthews Sedan Cruiser. I took pride in her with teak oiled, brightwork shammied daily, chrome and brass polished. In short, shipshape in Bristol fashion. It was something you learned and took pride in. At that time “Tireless” was one of the queens and owned by Roger Firestone. I learned a great deal from Capt. Soneberg of the “Tireless” and his crew as well as the crew of John Hay Whitney's new (Whittacar) “Aphrodite”, Capt. John Birdsal of Phillip Malory's “Mystic VIII”, P.S. Dupont's crew from “Barlovento” and “Maid of Honor” as well as Captian Pete Sinclair of Reynolds DuPont's “Goddess”. We were a close knit family at that small yacht club. In fact “Tireless” owed something to “Goddess”, that sweeping bow we today identify as being "Trumpy". The story was told me of how, while “Goddess” was being serviced at the Trumpy yard in Annapolis designers took the lines from the bow of the Consolidated built “Goddess” with the intention of modifying it a bit for future Trumpys. Thus the plumb stem gained a bit of a rake.


Enough reminiscing, after college and a few years in yachting I moved on. I entered a profession with great success off the water. Today I am an older man at 70, years away from the sea and these beautiful teak and mahogany greyhounds. It is painful to learn that “Tireless” has become tired and in her weakened state has succumbed to age. Not all Fishers Island Yacht Club vessels can enjoy the years of renewed life like Whitney's original “Aphrodite”, rebuilt by the Brooklin Yard or as with “Goddess”, now named “Empress”, be well maintained. Farewell to a beautiful vessel. She may not survive but memories of the close of a golden age of yachting will always be with me.

Tireless, Mangrove Marina, Tavernier, Fl. June 7, 2018