Boathouse Move Postponed Due To Weather

CHATHAM – Windy weather early this week forced the postponement of the move of the historic Stage Harbor Coast Guard boathouse from New Bedford to its new home at 90 Bridge St.

 The new schedule has the boathouse making the eight-hour trip across Nantucket Sound on a barge owned by Robert B. Our Company next Monday, March 23. The boathouse will spend a day or so in outer Stage Harbor and be placed via land-based crane onto the foundation at Bridge Street on Wednesday, March 25.

 The dates are tentative and weather-dependent, according to Natural Resources Director Greg Berman.

 After an inspection, title to the boathouse passed from David Doherty, the Chatham resident who saved the structure from demolition in 2009, to the town on Friday. For decades the building served as a boat storage and maintenance facility for the Chatham Coast Guard Station, at one time sheltering the CG36500, the lifeboat used in the historic Pendleton rescue. It was sold in the 1970s and sat unused for more than three decades. 

Doherty worked with Boston developer Jay Cashman to find a use for the building, to no avail. It remained in storage at his Quincy boatyard, with a short stint in Hull, until town officials agreed to incorporate it into new shorefront facilities at 90 Bridge St., where the renovated boathouse will be the new home of the town’s shellfish upwelling operations.