THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250241
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 87 lines
On the fifth day, says the biblical book of Genesis, God created the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea.
On the 24th day of June, George M. ``Sonny'' Hines Jr. launched the Fifth Day, a luxurious, 63-foot yacht named after the quote from Genesis.
A towering crane easily lifted the 60,000-pound vessel Monday and plopped it into the waters of winding Bennett's Creek at high tide.
And a Suffolk community that had watched the progress for almost three years cheered while munching on barbecue beef and sipping iced tea in the sweltering heat.
Finally rocking gently in the creek, the yacht looked like an oceanliner in a fish pond.
``I've seen it go from barrels of resin and cloth to this beauty,'' said Vernon G. Eberwine Jr., who once operated a cannery out of the building that now houses Hines-Farley Offshore Yachts.
The company specializes in building luxurious custom crafts. Fifth Day, which displaces only five feet of water, is the third such vessel Hines has launched on the creek. A former waterman turned boatbuilder, he earlier had designed and built a 47-footer and another 63-footer.
Neither Hines nor the owners, a retired veterinarian and his wife from Belleair Beach, Fla., would say how much the boat cost. Locals guessed about $3 million.
``And I worked my butt off here for a whole lot of years to send out a 10 cents can of collard greens,'' said Eberwine, chuckling.
The Fifth Day has a lounge with white carpeting and a pair of recliners and cushioned seats upholstered in white leather. Visitors touring the yacht before its launching were welcomed, but they were asked to remove their shoes.
The galley - complete with a bread maker, an ice maker, a microwave and a range - disappears into walls or cabinets when not in use.
Three bedrooms, each with its own bath, feature closets lined in aromatic cedar, mirrored walls and VCR/TV combinations. Five other woods were used in the construction, Hines said: African rosewood, kawazina, teak, koa from Hawaii and quilted mahogany.
All of the boat's linens, including comforters and pillows, are monogrammed.
The boat is powered by two 1,200-horsepower Mann diesels and is expected to have a maximum speed of about 40 knots.
Paul and Lois Ann Chapman first saw one of Hines' yachts when they were in the Bahamas. ``I fell in love with the inside; he fell in love with the outside,'' she said.
``It was exactly the kind of boat we were looking for,'' he said. ``It had the construction methods, the attention to detail, the obvious pride of workmanship.''
The Chapmans, who love to fish, also were impressed that a yacht the size of theirs could be so maintenance-free. They plan to operate it without a crew and to live on the boat at least six months of the year.
They will sail from Virginia to Florida, Mexico, the Bahamas, South America. But first, they will take the Fifth Day for a shakedown cruise on the Chesapeake Bay.
Hines, who grew up in Rescue in Isle of Wight County, is a high school graduate whose expertise comes from experience. Like his father and grandfather, he spent his early years as a commercial fisherman. Hines and his father began repairing boats in 1968.
In the mid-1970s, a Smithfield man asked Hines to build a boat. And in 1985, he became a partner with Peter Farley, a San Francisco doctor.
``This has been a group effort of everybody who works here,'' Hines said Monday, as he sat on the bow, wiping sweat from his face.
``The boat took so long because of the intricacy involved. We made few changes throughout the process.''
The yacht will probably remain in Hampton Roads for about six months, Hines said, until he can be certain everything is operating properly.
It was the Chapmans' idea to share the launching of the yacht with the community and with those who had a hand in building it. And it was their idea to make it a celebration.
Meanwhile, Hines has already started working on another 63-footer, this one for Farley.
``I like sailboats,'' Eberwine said. ``I'm trying to convince him to build a sailboat.'' ILLUSTRATION: JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Virginian-Pilot
A crane lifts the Fifth Day into the waters of the winding Bennett's
Creek in Suffolk at high tide on Monday.
The Virginian-Pilot file
George M. ``Sonny'' Hines Jr. of Hines-Farley Offshore Yachts, which
specializes in building luxury boats. by CNB