PORT LUDLOW — The owner of a rusty ship dwarfing yachts at Port Ludlow Marina might be going away soon.
“We have a buyer that I will connect with today or tomorrow,” George Marincin, president of VicMar Inc. of Tacoma and owner of the 180-foot-long, 325-metric-ton New Star, said Monday.
“We are going to move it out of there and should know something positive by the end of this week,” he said.
The vessel without an engine has been moored at the end of a pier meant for pleasure boats since Oct. 1, when it was towed in for what was promised to be no more than seven days.
Since that time, there have been several delays — to the consternation of marina officials and boat owners.
“Until I see it heading out of the Port Ludlow Bay, I don’t have any answers,” said Port Ludlow Marina manager Kori Ward.
Ward allowed the New Star to dock after the tow operator said he would anchor it in the middle of the bay if permission was not granted.
Marincin said he is working to complete a dead ship tow plan required by the U.S. Coast Guard before the vessel can be moved.
On Monday, he said the plan was “almost finished.”
Marincin expected to tow the vessel to Mexico, where it was to be cut apart and sold as scrap metal to the Asian market.
He hoped that the New Star would be the first of many vessels to follow a similar path, helping the state to get rid of derelict vessels.
Even though the New Star’s journey hasn’t worked out as planned, Marincin hopes to continue the program.
“It’s been a real pain with a steep learning curve, but in the long run it will be well worth it,” he said.
Marincin said he has lost about $20,000 so far in the venture but thinks he can recoup his losses.
Marincin said he was negotiating with members of the Makah tribe for temporary moorage in Neah Bay, but hadn’t heard back because one of the tribal principals was out of town.
Port of Neah Bay Director Bill Parkin has said he opposes docking the New Star in the Makah Marina because he doesn’t want to have a repeat of what happened with the Kalakala.
The disabled ferry, once a symbol of Seattle’s progress that became an Alaska fish processor before its return to Washington in 1998, spent 2004 at the marina before the Makah tribe evicted it.
“We have let the Coast Guard know that we are adamantly opposed to any plan that includes Neah Bay as part of its destination,” Parkin said of the New Star.
“If it’s going to Mexico, it should go to Mexico. If it’s going to Canada, it should go to Canada.
“There is no reason that it needs to stop here.”
Marincin said the New Star was first used in the 1940s as a Navy minesweeper in the Pacific and was converted into a fish-processing vessel in 1955.
For the past several years, it has been stationed as a breakwater in the Tacoma area.
It’s also Tacoma where the Kalakala was taken after its year in Neah Bay.
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
