Longtime Charter Boat Captain Retires

ORLEANS – A fixture of the Rock Harbor charter fishing fleet has retired, but efforts were made last month to keep the slip as part of the fleet.

The select board on Sept. 23 unanimously voted to award a slip transfer from Capt. Walter “Hap” Farrell to Elise Costa, who plans to continue operating Farrell’s vessel, the Stunmai II, as a charter fishing boat out of the harbor.

Farrell has had a boat docked in the harbor since 1978, and began operating as part of the harbor charter fleet in 1980. He cited recent health issues behind his decision to retire from the fleet.

“The charter fleet has diminished some since then, and I assume the town will want the service to continue providing a charter service in Rock Harbor,” Farrell wrote in his letter to Natural Resources Manager and Harbormaster Nate Sears requesting the transfer.

In a letter dated Sept. 18, Sears denied the request because it did not meet the harbor’s criteria for allowing a slip transfer. Those include reasons such as financial hardship, potential natural resource impacts, physical characteristics of a vessel or dock, proposed vessel use, and potential navigational impacts. He said he could not allow the transfer without the permission of the select board.

However, the policy also recognizes the importance of the charter and commercial fishing fleets to the “economic health” of the harbor and the town, and says the town seeks to maintain “the current percentage of slips currently devoted to these uses.” 

Sears said there are 14 dedicated slips for commercial fishing vessels in the harbor. But the charter fleet continues to “dwindle” in number. Former Eastham Harbormaster Charlie Miller, who chartered a boat out of the harbor for 30 years, said he watched the number of vessels in the fleet drop from 19 to as few as eight. He said keeping the fleet active is important to the town’s economic health.

“Those people come into town,” he said of charter boat customers. “Generally they stay overnight in a hotel, they eat in a restaurant, they may go shopping at a gift shop or clothing store.”

Chuck Cataldo of the Fair Lady fishing vessel has been part of the Rock Harbor charter fleet for 46 years. He said today, there are only “half a dozen” boats left in the fleet.

“I would think anything the town could do to promote or facilitate getting another boat in the harbor would be beneficial to the town and the harbor,” he said.

In her letter to the select board, Costa, a lifelong Orleans resident, explained her family’s long history of chartering boats out of the harbor. Her father operates a charter boat out of the harbor, as did her grandfather before him.

“Fishing was not simply a business in my family; it was a way of life,” she said. “I was fortunate to grow up on the water, learning the trade from my father, just as he had learned it from my grandfather.”

Costa has worked as a mate aboard charter boats and obtained her 100-ton master captain’s license through the U.S. Coast Guard. 

“Over the years, I have gained the experience and knowledge necessary to operate a safe, professional, and successful charter fishing business,” she said. “My goal has always been to carry on my family's tradition of charter fishing out of Rock Harbor.” 

Mark Mathison of the select board made a motion to support the transfer. He noted that the name Costa is “synonymous with Rock Harbor for many people.”

“So I can’t think of a better way to move on from Hap Farrell, who’s been there forever as well, [than to award the transfer] to someone that’s part of a family that’s also been there forever,” he said.

Farrell, who has written a fishing column for The Chronicle for several years, cited health issues behind his decision to sell his slip and vessel. Kevin Galligan of the select board thanked him for the “dignified” way in which he went about transferring his slip.

“It’s setting an example for others to hopefully follow.”