PORT TOWNSEND — A 60-foot, 51-ton schooner remained stranded on the breakwater outside of the Boat Haven on Saturday, awaiting recovery that will take place as soon as the weather clears.
The Phoenix, a gaff-rigged tops’l schooner, was anchored outside the breakwater when heavy winds and high tides pushed the boat onto the rock wall Friday afternoon, according to Capt. Roger Slade of Vessel Assist Port Hadlock.
The owner of the boat, James Kruse of Orcas Island, was out of town and the vessel was unoccupied when the storm hit, Slade said.
Vessel Assist was involved in two other vessel rescues Friday, one in which a boat sustained a shredded sail and another in which a sailboat lost its foresail and engine power near Marrowstone Island.
Tore hole in boat
The Phoenix is made of ferro-cement, a durable compound used in boatbuilding, but the force of its contact with the breakwater tore a large hole in its port side, according to Slade.
“We tried to patch the hole and pump out the water, but the side was pretty well caved in,” Slade said.
It had just spent several weeks in the Boat Haven for extensive repairs and was relaunched merely days before the storm, Slade said.
It’s uncertain how and when the Phoenix will eventually rise again.
Slade said divers are inspecting the damage and determining whether to use flotation devices to dislodge the boat from the rock wall.
He predicted that removal efforts would begin today.
No pollutants leaked into the water, Slade said.
The Phoenix was anchored in 60-foot-deep water, said Jim Pivarnik, Port of Port Townsend deputy director.
“This time of year, there are some pretty strong winds,” Pivarnik said.
“If someone is on board during the storm, they can handle it, but people shouldn’t leave their boats unoccupied.”
Added Slade: “The lesson is that if you want to anchor your boat outside of the breakwater this time of year, you shouldn’t go out of town.”
As it was determining how to recover the Phoenix, Vessel Assist was dealing with two other rescue situations Friday.
Emergency dispatchers received a call at about 10:15 a.m. of a sailboat in distress because of high wind and large waves, said Bill Beezley, East Jefferson Fire-Rescue spokesman.
The two occupants were shooting off flares from the 25-foot boat about 1 mile north of the Fort Flagler lighthouse on Marrowstone Island, Beezley said.
Sailboat rescues
The boat had lost its foresail in the stiff wind and 3-foot waves, and the two aboard feared it would capsize.
They were not hurt, he said.
The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter from Port Angeles, and East Jefferson Fire-Rescue Marine 16 and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Marine 1 also arrived to help.
While the Coast Guard helicopter took up station nearby, Marine 16 secured the sailboat until Vessel Assist could arrive.
Vessel Assist took the sailboat under tow into Port Townsend Bay.
The occupants of the boat, a man and a woman, declined to provide their names to the Peninsula Daily News and also declined to comment.
“We were pretty shook up by this,” the man said. “We don’t want to talk right now.”
The 25-foot white sailboat has no name or identifying numbers posted on its hull.
Vessel Assist also rescued the Little Audrey, a sailboat headquartered in Bainbridge Island, after the wind shredded its sails outside the Boat Haven.
Slade’s crew towed the boat to the Boat Haven.
No one was hurt, he said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
