Derelict vessels present problems for ports

PORT ANGELES — Although the age and historic relevance of the tugboat Elmore that the Port of Port Townsend will auction Monday makes it something of an outlier, it is among the hundreds of derelict and abandoned boats that are the bane of public ports across the state.

Eric ffitch, executive director of the Washington Public Ports Association, said that, from small agencies like the Port of Silverdale to behemoths like the Port of Seattle, the headache of what to do with boats whose owners have disappeared, refuse to pay or can’t afford to pay for the moorage and fees they owe is endemic.

“It is a pervasive problem,” ffitch said.

Marinas are seldom money-makers for ports, ffitch said. They exist so the public can have access to recreational activities. The administrative costs related to dealing with abandoned boats cut into revenue that could be spent investing in facilities.

John Nutter, director of finance and administration at the Port of Port Angeles, said handling delinquent accounts — from chasing down boat and boathouse owners to the process of putting a boat up for auction — is an unfortunate but necessary part of port business.

“Someone decides they don’t want the boat anymore and walk away,” Nutter said. “I’ve had one tenant that moved to Costa Rica and just left behind a bunch of junk. They pass away and don’t have any heirs, or if they do have children, the children don’t want anything to do with it and so unfortunately we get stuck with quite a few boats.”

Boats whose owners are delinquent take up high-demand moorage. Even when boats are hauled onto the hard, they take up space the port could use for other purposes.

State law requires ports to recoup costs related to delinquent accounts, like putting boats up for public auction.

It takes about 120 days from the port notifying a boat owner that their property will be auctioned to the sale itself.

“There’s a state-mandated process of a whole series of letters that we have to send out and a mandatory waiting period between each of them,” Nutter said. “Then we have to schedule an auction, and then we have to notify them, ‘Here’s your last chance.’”

If no one buys the boat at auction, it becomes port property to sell or dispose of.

Fewer than 10 percent of the boats actually find buyers, Nutter said. Many are too old or in such bad condition that they are beyond repair.

Even demolishing them isn’t easy.

“We have to go through the whole process of removing all fluids and, depending on the age of the boat, we may have to do an asbestos assessment,” he said.

Disposal at a solid waste facility can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size of the boat.

The Port of Port Angeles recently demolished a backlog of boats with $15,000 in funding from the state Department of Natural Resource’s Derelict Vessel Removal Program.

“It’s made a difference,” Nutter said of the program. “It hasn’t covered all of the cost, but it will at least chip away at some of it.”

The rest of the financial burden is all on the port.

Every once in a while, Nutter said, he is pleasantly surprised when a delinquent account is resolved promptly and amicably.

“Last week, there was a family that didn’t even realize that their deceased father owed money on his mortgage and he was probably six months behind,” Nutter said. “They said, ‘Go ahead and auction the boat and afterward we’ll right you a check for the difference.’

“That was a first.”

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsula dailynews.com.