Two flee burning boat off North Haven shore

NORTH HAVEN – A Coast Guard crew could only watch a boat burn Saturday morning in Winter Harbor on the northeast side of North Haven.

The two occupants of the boat, a 43-foot-long cat-style sloop named Maverick Lady, were able to escape unharmed.

Operations Petty Officer Ben Ivey said the Coast Guard was called to the scene at 6 a.m. Saturday. The Coast Guard dispatched its 47-foot rescue vessel from the Rockland station, but the boat could not get close enough to the sailboat because of shallow water.

Coast Guard officials learned that the owner, Karl Prinz of Beverly, Mass., and another passenger had escaped the boat in a dinghy soon after the fire began in the vessel’s galley. The boat was anchored when the fire began, Ivey said, and the blaze soon overcame the vessel.

The fire demolished the boat, with the loss estimated at $85,000 to $90,000, Ivey said.