After a life of traversing the Chesapeake Bay and open sea, the steel hull of Freya, a 30-foot sailboat, arrived under tow on April 10 at its final destination on Virginia’s Windmill Point Reef. After a contractor opened the drain valves to let water rush in, Hunter Smith, an artificial reef specialist with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, watched the water fill the hull. After the last bubble of air escaped with a burp, Freya sank to the bottom of the Bay in a blink.
The boat was built and owned by Gilbert Klingel, a Mathews County boatbuilder, Bay naturalist and author who died in 1983. It is the latest item to be donated to the marine commission’s Artificial Reef Program. The program creates underwater habitat in the lower Bay and at a handful of sites offshore, using everything from purpose-made concrete “reef balls” to enormous sections of demolished bridges and other discarded steel and concrete infrastructure. And of course, demoded boat hulls.
The reefs provide shelter and places for organisms to hide from predators. Over time, algae and oysters form on the surface. This in turn attracts small fish, then bigger fish, as the site becomes a place of food and safety…