PORT LUDLOW — A disabled vessel that was due to be towed out of Port Ludlow and taken to Neah Bay earlier this week is still moored at the end of the picturesque marina.
And there’s no firm date for the ship’s removal.
“We are waiting for the owner of the boat to supply us with a dead-ship tow plan,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gretchen Bailey, a marine inspector with the Hazardous Materials Standards Division.
“Once that has been approved, we can move it out of Port Ludlow — but there is no schedule for this.”
George Marincin, the owner of the 180-foot New Star, has not responded to requests for comment.
Since Oct. 1, the New Star has been tied to the end of the Port Ludlow Marina’s dock, where it dwarfs all the pleasure boats that are moored in the area.
It was to be towed into the Pacific, where it was to meet another tugboat to transport it to Mexico to be disassembled and sold as scrap.
When the Mexican tug was delayed over customs issues, the New Star was taken to Port Ludlow for what was supposed to be a few days.
Responding to an article published Tuesday in the Peninsula Daily News, Port of Neah Bay Director Bill Parkin told Marincin he did not have permission to dock the ship at the Makah Marina.
“We didn’t want to have a repeat of the Kalakala,” Parkin said, referring to the disabled ferry that spent 2004 at the marina before the Makah tribe evicted it.
Parkin said he heard that the New Star instead would be towed directly into the Pacific without a stop in Neah Bay.
On Monday, Marincin, president of VicMar Inc. of Tacoma, said his transportation of the vessel to Mexico was part of a program meant to relieve the state of Washington from dealing with derelict vessels.
Marincin said 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.
The boat’s previous owner paid Marincin to dispose of the vessel, with the plan to tow it to Mexico, where it was to be put on dry dock and cut into scrap metal for sale to the Asian market.
Ron Holcomb, a hazardous-materials specialist for the state Department of Ecology, said the Coast Guard inspected the vessel and found that it does not pose an immediate environmental danger.
“They made their assessment, the boat has no engine and is not leaking, so there is no threat of pollution,” he said.
“There is the potential for high winds dislodging the boat or causing damage to other boats, which could result in a secondary spill.”
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
