PORT LUDLOW— The decision to allow a derelict vessel into Port Ludlow Marina — for what now is a monthlong stay — was based on erroneous information, the manager of the marina says.
“I received a call from the tugboat operator asking to pull a barge into the marina, but when I declined to grant permission, they told me they would just park it in the bay,” said marina Manager Kori Ward.
“I didn’t want that to happen, so I agreed to allow it as long as I received insurance information and a bill of sale — along with a promise that it would only be there for less than a week.”
Ward received the information by email, but the vessel towed into the marina Oct. 1 was not a barge but a 180-foot disabled vessel that had been used as a breakwater for several years.
The rusting vessel, the New Star, has been moored to the end of the picturesque marina for almost a month.
And while all parties involved are anxious for its removal, there are no plans in place or final schedule for the operation.
Since the engine-less New Star was towed into the marina and tied up Oct. 1 amid the yachts and sailboats for which Port Ludlow is acclaimed, rumors have run rampant:
■ It is full of toxic material.
■ It is a front for a drug-smuggling operation.
■ It will stay in the marina all winter.
“These are all false,” said Kelle Kitchel-Cooper, who is representing Port Ludlow Associates as a public-relations counsel for the rumors.
“It doesn’t pose any environmental danger, and it won’t be used to smuggle marijuana.
“The owner is devastated, and he is committed to getting it out of the marina as soon as possible,” Kitchel-Cooper said.
“And the situation is being monitored around the clock, so if the winds go above 15 miles an hour, they will step in and prevent any damage.”
This isn’t good enough for some Port Ludlow residents, who fear that if a storm occurs, the 180-foot hulk will break loose and tear into the adjacent fuel dock.
“That boat should never have been allowed to tie up there,” said Randall Shelley, a Port Ludlow resident who ties up his own boat at the marina.
“When the storms come and blow up to 70 or 80 miles an hour, it will push the boat right through the dock. It will either destroy pleasure craft, go through the fuel dock or both.
“If the fuel leaks onto the water, one spark can set everything off.”
Shelley said the mooring hardware on the marina was not constructed for large vessels and could easily become dislodged when a storm occurs.
George Marincin, the vessel’s current owner, told the Peninsula Daily News earlier this month that the New Star was first used in the 1940s as a minesweeper in the Pacific and was converted to a fish-processing vessel in 1955.
For the past several years, it has been stationed as a breakwater in the Tacoma area.
Marincin planned to have the vessel towed to Mexico, where it was to be put on a dry dock and cut into scrap metal for sale to the Asian market.
But he learned that the Mexican tugboat that was to do the hauling was delayed shortly after leaving Tacoma.
He sought permission to tie up the New Star in Port Ludlow until the situation was resolved.
Marincin did not respond to several calls from the PDN for comment.
Kitchel-Cooper, who said she has spent a lot of time talking to Marincin, said he was “in tears” about the situation and was pursuing several options for the New Star’s removal.
She said Marincin has found a potential buyer who will tow the ship to Everett, but there is no schedule for the operation.
The Coast Guard is involved and has requested Marincin to submit a “dead-ship tow plan,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gretchen Bailey, a marine inspector with the Hazardous Materials Standards Division.
“This is an unfortunate situation,” Ward said.
“I believe [Marincin] is doing everything he can to resolve it.”
Shelley said he isn’t convinced. He expects the New Star to be in the marina for some time.
Shelley questioned the decision to allow the vessel into Port Ludlow under any circumstances, saying it would have been better to anchor it in the bay.
“If it sank, it would have caused a lot of problems ecologically, and they would have to put up navigation buoys, but we’d still have a marina, and we’d still have a fuel dock,” he said.
“Aside from the potential damage, people are coming into Port Ludlow and are thinking of moving here — and they see that and think, ‘What do we have here?’
“I’m hearing a lot of things about when they are going to move it out, but every morning I wake up, I look out my window, and it’s still there.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
