PORT ANGELES — Some solution to the salvaging of the 36-foot boat with no name grounded in Valley Creek Estuary is expected by the end of the week, a state Department of Natural Resources manager said.
“We have not taken custody of it at this point, but it is on our radar, and we will probably do that this week,” said Melissa Ferris, manager of the derelict vessel removal program for the state Department of Natural Resources.
“It doesn’t sound like [the owner] is going to be able to remove it.”
The boat ran aground during the Nov. 18 storm. It’s the second time that this wooden cabin cruiser has landed on Port Angeles shores.
It was just about this time last year that the boat ran aground near Oak Street.
Then, the owners, David and Nancy Reese of Port Angeles — who inherited the boat from their son — figured out a way to patch the boat and get it afloat, but this time they are stumped.
“The boat is destroyed at this point,” Nancy Reese said. “The keel is broken on it now.
“We just don’t have the money” to get it out of the water and “take it apart and get it to a landfill.”
David Reese said he has no idea how much it would cost to remove and dispose of the boat, but that he expects the expense would be somewhere in the several-thousands-of-dollars range.
The state is working with him, he said. He was told “that if I didn’t come up with a good plan … they’d do it — put it on their list — and send me the bill.”
DNR representatives said the cost varies depending upon the size and condition of the boat.
“It’s really hard to say,” Ferris said, estimating the cost of removal and salvage at “maybe under $15,000.”
The couple are looking for a way to take care of their responsibility, David Reese said.
He cleaned up debris from the boat Monday night, he said Tuesday, and planned to clean up more later that day.
“We’re talking with [the state] and trying to get it worked out,” he said.
No environmental damage
The boat is not causing environmental damage, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said last week, even though it is in an estuary, which is rich habitat for many species.
Although the boat had been grounded since last month, no governmental action was taken until Friday, when a passerby noticed a sheen and contacted the Coast Guard.
The sheen was from residual gasoline, Lt. j.g. Marina Turner, spokeswoman with the Seattle Sector of the Coast Guard, said last week.
“It has no potential for any large-scale spill at all,” she said.
The boat had been emptied of all fuel, Turner said.
“So we’re not too worried about a danger to the environment as far as discharge of oil or gasoline.”
DNR
The Coast Guard contacted the state Department of Natural Resources, which began working with the Reeses to find a way to get the boat out of the estuary.
“It’s in a protected area, an estuary, which are very ecologically precious places,” important to the survival of several species, state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Jane Chavey said.
“So we are concerned about dealing with it as soon as possible.”
But, she said that Coast Guard investigators had found that there was no fuel on board to present a risk to wildlife.
“The Coast Guard checked it out to make sure it wasn’t causing ecological problems of significance out there,” she said Friday.
Also, the boat isn’t on a rocky shore where it could be smashed to pieces, she said.
“Since it seems to be pretty stable at the moment, we can move forward in more thoughtful manner,” Chavey said, adding that she expected the department would know by the end of the week what approach it would take.
Inherited expense
The boat has been a trial for the Reeses since they inherited it.
It had belonged to their son, Tad, who died at the age of 29 about 2 1/2 years ago, his mother said.
He died of a fast-growing cancer that took him within days of its discovery, she said. He left a few clothes, nine children and a boat with no name moored out in the Port Angeles Harbor.
The Reeses now are caring for four of their son’s nine children, Nancy Reese said, and the couple have been working to get the money together to fix the boat and sell it.
When it ran ashore during December storms in 2008, the Reeses’ daughter managed to fix it with a fiberglass patch so they could get it afloat.
“Last year, it ended up on the beach, it was terrible,” Nancy Reese said. “It sucked Christmas right out of my house.
This time, it’s in even worse shape.
“We’re trying to get the money together to take it apart,” she said. They can’t afford the mooring fees to take it to the nearby marina, she said, and don’t know yet what they will do.
Work with owner
Chavey said that DNR would exhaust all other possibilities before putting the boat on its derelict list and removing it at state expense.
“Normally that is our approach,” she said. DNR works with “owners of vessels to see if they can get it done. It is really is their responsibility.”
If DNR takes custody of the boat, then “it would be taken to a venue where it could be dismantled or fixed,” Chavey said.
Ferris said it takes 30 days for DNR to complete the process of taking custody of a derelict vessel.
We’ll probably pull it out. We also have option of leaving it in place,” she said.
“If it is breaking up, we will pull out. If not, we might approach it more cost-effectively by leaving it there, since we’re not paying storage on it.”
DNR would store the boat at a Port of Port Angeles facility, Ferris said.
The Reeses would be billed for the expense. If they couldn’t work out a payment plan, then the bill would go to a collection agency, Ferris said, adding that the vessel removal program is funded by the $3 boat registration fee.
As the Reeses work on the problem of taking care of the boat, the sinking vessel also brings back bittersweet memories.
Nancy Reese remembers how much her son, who did not live on the boat, enjoyed it.
“Tad loved being out on the water,” even in cold weather, she said.
“His beard froze one year,” she recalled laughing. “It broke off.”
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.