Crane Barge Retrieves Grounded, Derelict Sailboat In Monomoy

The derelict sailboat Buenos Aires, which grounded in Monomoy during a storm last month, was pulled off the beach Saturday afternoon by a crane barge and transported by tug boat to New Bedford.

A crew from the Robert B. Our Co. navigated the small barge close to the shore, and the crane hoisted the 33-foot vessel aboard. The tug boat Realist then towed the barge to New Bedford, where the Buenos Aires will be scrapped, Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey said.

"It's the end of a nightmare," she observed of the boat's final chapter on Nantucket. It marked the end of a 10-month saga in which the boat became the most infamous vessel in Nantucket Harbor, with town and law enforcement officials unable to track down its owner.

Lucey, along with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Massachusetts Environmental Police, have spent "hundreds of hours" attempting to locate the sailboat's owner, securing the vessel's lines during storms, and responding to calls from the public about it.

"The number of man-hours that have been exhausted with this boat is crazy," Lucey said earlier this month. "It's become a part-time job."

The Buenos Aires first got on the radar of marine officials in May of 2023. It left the Nantucket Boat Basin on May 4th, Lucey said, and within a few days, both the Nantucket Harbormaster's office and Coast Guard Station Brant Point started getting calls about a boat aground or anchored by First Point.

The two agencies responded, searched the area under the assumption someone had gone overboard, and after finding no one, began working to track down its owner. That search first led them to island resident John Stover, the former owner of the sailboat who showed the authorities a bill of sale and told them the new owner was Cody Fenstermaker, of Key West, Florida.

Despite their best efforts - including 56 phone calls to Fenstermaker over the past nine months, along with calls to family and friends, Fenstermaker never took responsibility for the boat.

Now the Environmental Police are pursuing a legal case against Fenstermaker for abandoning the boat, while Lucey said she is working with the Robert B. Our Co. (RBO) to ensure the Florida man pays for the removal. 

"We're working with RBO to recover the costs from Fenstermaker directly," Lucey said. But, she acknowledged, "There hasn't been much contact with him since the news came out."

Fenstermaker, a marine diesel mechanic, has a checkered history, according to published reports. While he was named "Citizen of the Day" by the Florida Keys News in March 2022, he was also arrested in July 2023 in Monroe County, Florida on two misdemeanor charges.

He also stands accused of similarly abandoning a boat in Provincetown, Mass.

"I found it most interesting that you have an abandoned, grounded sailboat owned by Cody Fenstermaker in your harbor," said Provincetown Harbormaster Don German in an unsolicited email to the Current following our Feb. 6 story on the Buenos Aires. "We too have a Tartan 34 abandoned sailboat, also owned by Cody Fenstermaker, on our wave attenuator in Provincetown."

Authorities may or may not be able to track down Fenstermaker. The Buenos Aires, however, is bound for the scrap yard. Lucey said the vessel's keel is broken, among other issues.

"It's non-repairable, unseaworthy, and unsafe," she said.

All photos below by Charity Grace Mofsen: