ROCKPORT —Neil Ward hopes to haul up his 29-foot Wellcraft motor cruiser this coming weekend from the bottom of Rockport’s outer harbor and determine why the boat sunk so rapidly while tied to a mooring.

The boat is currently sitting 64 feet below water on the harbor floor.

According to Rockport Harbor Master Abbie Leonard, the boat foundered almost three weeks ago on a day when the wind was blowing hard out of the south, “with pretty good seas.”

However, it was not a day that kept fishermen from checking their traps. They had all gone out that morning, and one of them radioed to Leonard that the Wellcraft was sitting low in the water and might need pumping. But by the time Leonard grabbed the pump and got into her harbor master’s boat, the Wellcraft had gone straight down.

Leonard said the vessel is not currently a hazard to navigation, nor does its predicament pose an environmental hazard; there was not a huge amount of gasoline on board, she said.

“Once it comes up its problems start,” she said, noting the engines will need rebuilding and systems repaired.

Ward had placed a notice on Craig’s List saying the twin inboard engines have fewer than 400 hours on them.

He said Oct. 28 that the boat, built in 1986, had been in good shape and “dry as a bone” in the days prior to its sinking.

“It’s a nice boat, a beautiful boat,” he said.

Ward had purchased it in the Penobscot Bay YMCA’s annual boat sale and its previous owner had been an engineer who, “kept it immaculate.”

He had planned to take the boat to Tenants Harbor, where it was to be hauled for the winter.

Instead, he and the boat’s new owner, a diver and engine repairman, will be collecting as much floatation material as possible this week. They hope to lift the boat and tow it to Goodie’s Beach, next to the Harbor Master’s building, where it will be pulled onto the sand and analyzed.

The plan is to get king-size air mattresses, stuff them into the cockpits, and under the hull, and try to raise the vessel to the surface.

“We are anxious to get it up and see why it sunk,” said Ward.

Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657