Peninsula In Passage

Hines-Farley Offshore Yachts A fifth generation waterman, Sonny Hines, President of Hines-Farley Offshore Yachts, built top-of-the-line custom sport fishing craft on Bennett’s Creek at the old Eberwine cannery site. The yachts were fitted with luxury salons and staterooms. In 1997 a typical Hines 63 foot yacht had a $2.6 million price tag. Hines initially bought a boatyard in Rescue, VA, in 1969, to do repair work and build small wooden skiffs. He moved up to off shore sport fishermen and about 1985 partnered with Peter Farley, a California physician, and moved the boatyard to Bennett’s Creek. The business closed in 2005 when Hines retired.

Andy Maxey Andy Maxey’s family arrived in America in 1740. His grandfather was the minister at Main Street Methodist in Suffolk and his father practiced law there.The family lived on South Broad Street and had a circa 1948 summer cottage on the waterfront in Bennett’s Creek. Maxey graduated from Suffolk High School and has worked in production at WHRO-TV for 47 years. He’s semi-retired now. When his father and sister died, Maxey and his mother sold the house in Suffolk and moved to the summer place 30 years ago. “This was out in the country then,” he remembers. “If you didn’t have a car you were stuck.” Maxey’s passion is history, especially local history and specifically, post offices. Over the years he’s compiled volumes of research on 45 or more of the area’s post offices - and can talk about them as if he had mailed a letter there yesterday. And he worries about history being lost. As important as Richard Bennett is to the history of North Suffolk, no one has ever found a1600s portrait or wax portrait of him. Maxey, however, on a trip to London was able to turn up a copy of a document from 1642 that included his signature – not generally seen before in this area. “A lot of 17th century history was lost at Bennett’s Creek Landing when it was built up,” Maxey says. “The area is growing up but I don’t want it to be like Virginia Beach or become a collecting place for cheap developments.”

151