Staving off sinkings

The Blue Pointer is hauled out of the water Wednesday. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The Alibi, a 50-foot derelict vessel, sank in the harbor a few years ago because it had not been removed in time, Young said. it’s still underwater.

“This is a big deal,” Young said. “Not only is it dangerous and bad for the environment, but once a boat sinks the expense of getting it out of the water skyrockets.”

The harbor filed lawsuits in Del Norte County Superior Court this week against five people it considers responsible for four boats. They include  Barbara Amis (Blue Pointer); Raymond Toste (Chinook); James Kovacs and Jason Elliot (Sea Grit) and Ben Sampels (Polaris).

The vessels are all derelict boats whose value is actually less than nothing because of the cost of getting them out of the water, Young said, adding no additional boat removals are currently scheduled.

The suits claim the owners have not paid their slip fees. None of the defendants could be reached for comment Thursday.

Harbor facilities manager Paul McAndrews uses a CAT to tear the stern off. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

“We’ve been really strapped for cash these last couple of years,” Young said. “This is badly needed revenue that we may never really see.”

In a case like the Blue Pointer, Young said that the harbor is saving money by removing the boat itself  and then demolishing it on site.

“We’re systematically taking the bad boats out,” Harbor Commissioner Scot Feller said. “We are really happy to be beginning the cleanup process.”

The process Feller refers to has been a long time in coming, Young said.

“We’ve been working on getting these boats out of the water for a number of years now,” Young said. “It’s nice to finally be breaking ground and that the Pointer’s removal went so smoothly.”

On Wednesday, the grass-covered rotting wreck slid up the boat ramp behind the harbor offices like it had been wanting to get out of the water for a long time. It almost seemed to groan with relief when it settled onto its side.

“The whole removal process took less than an hour after we spent days planning,” said harbor facilities manager Paul McAndrews.

Before pulling up the vessel, harbor employees removed nearly 5 tons of material, including the engine, gas tanks and transmission, McAndrews said.

“This is a problem at harbors up and down the coast,” Young said. “Often these derelict boats get owned by people who don’t have a lot of money and don’t realize that owning a boat is really expensive. The old wood boats are incredibly costly to up-keep, but some people think that owning one would be romantic.”

In cases of boats that aren’t derelict  but still have owners that aren’t paying slip fees, the harbor can place a lien against the boat and recoup its loss that way, Young said.

“The problem is that these derelict boats aren’t worth much,” Young said. “In cases like those we need to try and recover our lost revenue through civil action.”