For this month’s Classic Boat column, I’m sticking close to home and featuring a boat near and dear to my heart—my brother, Capt. Tyler Jasinski’s, 1993 Henriques Yachts 35 Maine Coaster, the Miss Bonny Kay.
I’ve written about his boat before, but it’s been quite a few years. So, for a little background, the boat is named in honor of my grandparents’ crabbing boat, the Miss Bonny Kay, which was named after my mom. Tyler purchased the boat in 2018 after selling his previous boat, a 1994 35-foot Evans Somerset.
Henriques Yachts was started by Joaquim ‘Jack’ Henrique in the 70s. Born in Portugal, Jack developed a strong passion for building boats while working alongside his father. He immigrated to America in 1959 and started the company in 1977 in Bayville, NJ.
Soon after taking off, Jack was joined by his daughters and his son-in-law who helped to really establish the Henriques name. Today, the brand is known for its strong and solid hull design, known to endure any weather conditions out at sea, and its focus on true semi-custom craftsmanship. Every yacht is built to order, designed around the needs of its owner. One of the most defining features of Henriques Yachts is space—they have one of the largest cockpits in their class and engine rooms designed for accessibility. Every build is engineered to maximize fishability, comfort, and stability.
It was for many of these reasons that Tyler was originally drawn to the brand.
“It’s like the Swiss army knife of boats,” he says. “It has twin diesels, and it has trolling valves so you can troll easily on the Bay. It’s just as much at home fishing the Canyons as it is on the Bay, so you can do both. It’s also very fuel efficient.”
Our dad, Brian, also chimed in to add that, “It was a former charter boat, so it had a good pedigree; the previous owner had it in charter for 20-some years.”
Both were involved in the search process and brought the boat home together from Solomons, MD, so naturally I had questions for each of them. Tyler found the boat online and went to see it twice before the sale was official.
My dad shared how the former owner was reluctant to sell the boat. “He had it built to his specs and really didn’t want to sell it,” he says. Perhaps he was just waiting for the right person to pass the boat on to.
He added how the former owner seemed to like Tyler “because he had his captain’s license, and he wanted to pass it on to someone who would appreciate the boat. And he gave him so much extra equipment that he didn’t have to; extra parts and things for the boat that were worth a lot of money.
“He’s a great guy,” he says. “I still call him every now and then just to check in, ask him how he’s doing; he’s probably in his 80s at this point.”
The day they were meant to take the boat home, a lengthy cruise from Solomons up to Middle River, there was a storm off the coast (we believe it was Hurricane Florence), causing rough conditions in the Bay. The previous owner suggested they hold off for a few days, but seeing as how it wasn’t that rough, Tyler was determined to bring her home. “That’s the reason I bought the boat,” he says. And my dad agreed; he wanted Tyler to buy this particular boat because it was supposed to be safe in big waves. “If anything, this is the type of weather it should be good in,” he added.
On that first cruise, it was indeed rough, but the boat fared wonderfully. The journey was long but thankfully uneventful.
Fast forward a few years. The boat was christened the Miss Bonny Kay, and there have been many adventures, including an offshore trip up to Cape May, NJ. As with all of these columns, I asked Tyler what he loves most about his boat.
“It’s really good on fuel,” he says. “It’s extremely stable when you’re drifting eels. It’s just a really stable boat; it’s built like a tank. It handled really good offshore, even when it was an east wind blowing like 20, some 35 miles offshore.
But one of the biggest perks for Tyler is the fact that the boat has three stations. “That’s kind of unheard of,” he says. “You can run the boat single handed very easily. It’s also got a generator and heat so you can get A/C in the summer and heat in the winter, which is also rare for older charter boats.”
Apart from features, people always love the lines of the boat.
“It looks similar to a classic downeaster,” our dad added. It’s not, but these are some of the remarks Tyler often gets from people who aren’t as familiar with the brand.
“Everyone always comments that it looks like the boat from Jaws,” he says. “It just looks like a classic, clean boat.”
And it’s hard to miss with those clean lines and outriggers. She graces the cover of PropTalk this month; Tyler was a good sport when I twisted his arm about decorating for the holidays just a day after Halloween… but so it goes in the world of print deadlines.
If you find yourself in the Upper Bay next summer and see a boat that kind of looks like the Orca (I hope you know your Jaws references…) anchored out by Hart-Miller Island, it’s probably the Miss Bonny Kay. Be sure to give my brother a wave and tell him you heard about his boat in PropTalk!
By Kaylie Jasinski
Do you have a beloved classic boat? Want to share your story? Reach out to [email protected].