PORT TOWNSEND – A 30-foot sailboat that high winds and seas swept ashore near Point Wilson in Fort Worden State Park last week was removed from the beach Saturday.
Fort Worden Ranger Karl Fisch said the boat was removed by a trawler Saturday morning.
Thursday’s stormy seas, when wind gusts of more than 40 mph pummeled Port Townsend Bay, pitched the boat onto shore in the afternoon, and it attracted the attention of a number of beach walkers Friday as it rested on its side about a quarter-mile south of Point Wilson Lighthouse.
Steve Ballou, Fort Worden State Park’s conference operations supervisor, took his break on Friday to look at the boat.
“It looks like it’s hard aground,” he said, adding he believed the boat was moored offshore of where it washed up during the “big blow.”
Capt. Roger Slade, with Vessel Assist Port Hadlock, said that, at first, he was working with the boat’s owner, Ruben Caldwell of Port Angeles, to remove it some time this weekend but Caldwell told him that another vessel, a trawler, would be used to pull it out.
Slade said although the vessel’s keel was stuck deep in the sand during Thursday’s storm, he believes it can be towed out.
U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Tara Molle said the Coast Guard found the vessel posed no pollution threat and no one was hurt in the grounding.
“It was just a boat that washed up on the beach,” Molle said, adding that the owner was solely responsible for its removal.
Attempts to contact Caldwell, whose phone number was found on a sign in a cabin window, were unsuccessful.
Melissa Ferris, director of state Department of Natural Resources derelict vessel program, said the boat was not considered to be derelict although it washed up in state tidelands.
She said the boat was last believed to be moored in Mats Mats Bay.
No other boats were reported as grounded during the storm around Jefferson County, Ferris said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
