PORT TOWNSEND — A 50-foot wooden boat that nearly sank in shellfish-rich Mystery Bay a month ago has been taken over by the state and will be either sold or sent to a landfill.
The 1920 Yankee Sundowner has been sitting in the Port of Port Townsend boatyard storage area since it was towed from the Mystery Bay moorage near the tip of Griffith Point off the shores of Marrowstone Island on Nov. 2.
It was hauled out of Boat Haven marina because it leaked diesel fuel after Port Hadlock-based Vessel Assist towed it into the marina.
Melissa Ferris, director of the state Department of Natural Resources derelict vessel program, inspected the vessel Thursday in Port Townsend and said the vessel’s owner, Robert Davis, was given the usual 30 days to pay the state for haul-out and storage and at least begin repairs.
Haul-out and storage fees must be paid to the state in that period or the state takes the vessel into its permanent possession.
State takes custody
Ferris said no work had been done on the vessel as of Thursday, so the state was taking custody.
Haul-out and storage fees for the vessel would amount to nearly $1,400 through December, port officials said.
Ferris said a marine surveyor would have to take a look at the boat before the state decides its fate.
“We are deciding on the next steps with it,” Ferris said.
That will involve calling in a marine surveyor to decide if the rotting vessel can be sold for salvage.
“It’s a matter of if it’s worth selling it or just taking it to the landfill,” she said.
Cut it up, haul it off
Ferris said that if the state chooses to destroy the vessel, it would have to go through a request for proposals process for a company to come in, dismantle it and haul it away.
“They would just cut it up and haul it off to landfill and take the metal from it to the scrap yard,” she said.
Three Marrowstone Island residents were credited with averting a diesel fuel spill from the boat after they boated out to the sinking, derelict vessel and pumped out water that had caused it to list and nearly sink.
Susie Clinefelter said she was rowing her dinghy in Mystery Bay around 7 a.m. Nov. 2 when she spotted the sinking vessel.
She and her husband, Brad, accompanied by Marrowstone neighbor Glenn Woodbury, reached the boat before Vessel Assist arrived.
Also reporting the sinking vessel to the Coast Guard were Devon and Jim Surgent, who are building a Griffith Point Road home overlooking the vessel, which they had watched sink for months.
DNR, which owns the tidelands where the boat was moored near the tip of Griffith Point and across from Mystery Bay State Park, took possession of the vessel.
Vessel Assist of Port Hadlock and Cascade Towing, were hired by DNR to remove the vessel. It was towed it to Port Townsend Boat Haven marina late that Monday afternoon.
The port then had to haul the vessel out when a diesel spill was discovered around the vessel.
Ferris said the Yankee Sundowner was one of up to 190 derelict vessels the state has listed for removal, but a staffing shortage delayed action.
As steward of the 2.6 million acres of state aquatic lands, DNR manages the bedlands under Puget Sound and the coast, many of Washington’s beaches, and natural lakes and navigable rivers.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
