(2011)
The amazing double-deck cabin at the end of the Furtado’s Boatyard wharf is what remains of the pilot house of Albatross II, a motor yacht operated by Capt. Charles J. Hurlburt (±1861-1945) for deep-sea, hand-line fishing parties. She was skippered by Capt. Albert J. Avellar (1894-1962), one of the sons of “Mother Avellar,” and the father of Capt. Albert J. Avellar Jr. (1918-2008), a founder of the whale-watch industry with the Dolphin III and the owner and operator of the schooner Hindu. During the Hurricane of 1938, Albatross II was grounded on the West End Breakwater. Manuel “Ti Manuel” Furtado (1879-1945) was able to salvage the pilot house and convert it into one of the cabins he rented to summertime visitors on a pier he constructed in 1927 (99-101 Commercial Street). It has been owned since 2012 by Bryan Rafanelli and Mark Walsh of Boston, who also own the abutting shed (99-101 Commercial Street). Rafanelli and Walsh were the co-founders in 1996 of Rafanelli Events, a high-end, high-profile firm that has planned and prepared weddings for — among other boldface names — John Henry and Linda Pizzuti, in June 2009; Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky, in August 2010; and Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita in July 2013. Both Rafanelli and Walsh have been important fundraisers for Hillary Clinton. Walsh served in the Office of Protocol at the State Department while she was secretary of state. And Rafanelli was the co-host, with Banner founder Alix Ritchie, of a campaign benefit in Provincetown in July 2015 that The New York Times described as Clinton’s “most gay-friendly move” of the presidential campaign to date.
¶ Last updated on 30 August 2018. ¶ Image courtesy of the Town Assessor, Key 10165.
The double-deck pilot house of the Albatross II party boat, as seen in 2016.
The upper deck of the pilot house, during reconstruction in 2016.
Detail of the tongue-in-groove joinery between decks.
Main pilot house, during the 2016 reconstruction. The windows of both decks are protected during the interim by sheets of plywood.
Details of the pilot house.
The view through the portholes is spectacular. Photos by David W. Dunlap.
For further reading online
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Rafanelli Events website.