Raw Faith, a home built, 118-foot, three-masted sailing vessel sank this moring at 7:30 am approximately 166 miles off Cape Cod (click link for Coast Guard video). Two people on board, captain George McKay, the vessel’s owner and builder, and an unidentified crewmember, were rescued by a Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter, were brought to a hospital on Cape Cod, treated and released. Raw Faith was reportedly en route to Bermuda.
McKay built the vessel, which he claimed was patterned after a 16th century English ship, in the hope that his daughter, Elizabeth, who is afflicted with a disease called Marfan Syndrome and cannot walk, and other challenged people would be able to help sail the vessel and learn life skills.
This was not the first time Raw Faith had needed assistance form the Coast Guard. McKay called for rescue in 2006 when the vessel’s rig was lost in high seas of Mount Desert Rock.