Ill-fated sailboat is a tourist attraction in Ocean View

NORFOLK

Ralph DeMott came back to the beach a second time with a better camera.

After all, he'd never seen a shipwreck this close to home.

"I just wanted to get a slightly better camera than my cellphone," said DeMott, an Ocean View resident.

He was one of scores of people who came out Sunday for a look at Maybe Tomorrow, a 40-foot sailboat stranded on the beach near 9th View Street.

The boat lay on its starboard side about 100 feet from a sand dune, rudder cracked, sails ripped and bow gashed. A yellow strand of police tape strung along metal spikes kept onlookers away.

A day earlier, swimmers from Norfolk Fire-Rescue and other emergency workers had pulled the distressed boat from the foaming bay waters. A couple from Portsmouth, along with their cat, were taken to safety, according to a fire-rescue report. They were treated for mild hypothermia but were otherwise healthy, officials said. Their rescue grabbed attention around the country.

The couple declined to be interviewed on Saturday, according to officials. Some residents said the couple checked their boat around noon Sunday and met with emergency workers.

Debbie Hanssen lives about a block away from the wreck in a bayfront condominium. The stretch of beach by 9th View is usually quiet, she said, populated by a few families and vacationers.

Hanssen and her husband did not see the rescue, she said, because they had evacuated to higher ground. But when they returned Sunday morning, they saw the boat and a steady stream of onlookers. In her seven years in the Willoughby condo, she said, it's the most exciting thing to happen.

Sonny Shipp heard about the rescue on the news and drove from Colonial Place. "I came down just to see this," he said.

The boat is beautiful, he said - bigger than a good-sized apartment and better appointed. "That would have taken on more water than the Mayflower," said Shipp, admiring the craft. "It breaks my heart."

Ciara Scaife and her husband, Glenn, took their three daughters from Hampton on a Sunday drive and stopped at Willoughby. While the children played, her husband snapped photos.

With all the onlookers, she said, "I'm surprised the owners aren't here looking after it."

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2341, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com