After Boat Fire, Orleans Family Ready To Rebuild Their Dream

ORLEANS – Emily Viprino was heading out the door with her youngest son to catch a flight to Florida when her husband, Chris, came running down the stairs.

“He was like ‘I need to go. Can you watch the kids?’ I said ‘No, I’m on my way to the (airport). He said ‘I need to leave now,’ and he just kind of left.”

Chris, a commercial fisherman, had gotten word that there was a fire at the Wellfleet town pier, where his 44-foot clamming boat was docked. When he arrived, he found that the boat, which he and his family had purchased just last year, was destroyed in the blaze.

“The pier was still burning,” said Emily, who lives with her family in South Orleans.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Emily said. But she said concerns had been raised to town officials in Wellfleet prior to the fire about electrical issues at the facility.

Beyond the boat, the family also lost tens of thousands of dollars in tools, gear and electronics, Emily said. To help cover those losses and get her husband situated to return to clamming this season, she launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the necessary revenue. The campaign, which launched May 28, had raised $24,575 as of noon on Monday, exceeding the family’s $20,000 goal.

“We’re so moved beyond words, honestly, especially seeing how loved my husband is, how appreciated we are,” she said. “And I think how much support there is for this industry that really can be overlooked.”

Chris started fishing professionally about 15 years ago, Emily said. He first worked on a charter boat out of Rock Harbor before switching over to commercial shellfishing. In 2017, he purchased his first clamming boat.

The family operated two clamming boats before pivoting for a time to scalloping in 2022. They eventually sold both boats and purchased a scallop boat, but the long hours proved to be incompatible with the couple’s efforts to raise their young family. 

“We really both were like ‘the scalloping life wasn’t working for us,’” Emily said. “The stay-at-home life isn’t working for me and the kids. How can we change our life?’”

Emily resumed her graduate studies in clinical mental health, while last summer the family purchased a clamming boat in Maine for $5,000. With some help, Chris rebuilt the boat from the ground up in time to catch the end of the 2024 summer fishing season.

For Chris, the return to clamming was a homecoming of sorts.

“I think getting back into clamming said to him, ‘I do still belong. I am doing the right thing. I’m still doing a good thing,’” Emily said.

While she was initially reluctant to ask for help from the community, Emily said she decided to go ahead with the GoFundMe campaign to support her husband. She said the work he’s put into clamming has helped not only support their family but the community at large, noting that the family regularly donates a portion of its catch to people in need. 

“It means a lot for my husband to be able to provide nourishment for the community, and I think seeing that the community values that really is invigorating for him,” Emily said of the support generated through the fundraiser. 

In the interim, Chris has returned to scalloping on another vessel while the family works to sell its scalloping boat. Meanwhile, the couple has found another clamming boat that it hopes to purchase soon. If all goes well, Chris could be back on the water clamming by the end of June, Emily said. In the end, she said, that’s right where her family wants to be.

“We tried something new, but we realized that clamming was our home,” she said.

To donate to the campaign, visit www.gofundme.com/f/support-chriss-journey-to-rebuild-and-recover.