My brother Jim just had to remind me of a fishing trip we took in our youth, when my father took all of us out on a charter boat out of Westport, and my sister Caryn got seasick and puked in her hat, and my dad caught a big ol’ 40 pound king salmon, it was a marvelous outing, many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of a Sloar that day, I can tell you!
Anyway, he only wrote to tell me that the boat we were on, the Nyoda, is in the news.
Bold said the port will pay Global Diving and Salvage $80,000 to remove them, 90% of that will be reimbursed by the state’s Derelict vessel removal program. “The owners of both vessels have abandoned them and the port has ceased both. The vessels were offered for bid at [a] public auction, however, no bids were received.”
Once they are removed it’s not likely that either boat will see the water again. Bold continued, “Both have deteriorated hulls and are leaking. The port, as the marina operator, is responsible for removal and disposal.”
Dang. That boat could be a metaphor for me.
Leakage from the stern is the worst.
Ah, I’m way ahead on the leaking part. At 70, that’s already started. Not quit at the “never trust a fart” stage, thankfully.
I hope the owners are being stuck for the bill. If you abandon something, you should have to pay for the disposal.
I’m another one who’s already started leaking. Or perhaps I should say Grimhild is doing all the leaking right now.
Agreed, but good luck finding the owners. Their fishing/chartering business failed years ago so they ditched the boats, which weren’t worth the cost of repair, and high-tailed it out of town. They probably also stopped paying rent for the slip so the marina is out that money as well. Sounds like the American dream: Use something until its upkeep exceeds profits and then abandon it and let the taxpayers pay for the clean up.
Vinz, Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer! Zouhl was just looking for you!
I grew up in the area. Remember a trip on a teensy gillnetter when I was maybe ten. Caught a few salmon, but the net got caught in the propeller. Had to pay scuba guys to disentangle it..with the salmon we caught. And sleeping with two guys, none of us had showered, all of us reeking of fish. Trying to find the metaphor.
merdog:
Did you leak all over one another?
Isn’t this the standard Drumpfh method? Extract what you can, slink away, leave the mess to stockholders, investors, banks, employees, retirees, and customers?
We have a big problem with abandoned boats in British Columbia and particularly on Vancouver Island, where I live. I suspect it is ubiquitous where there are large bodies of water.
Also I have been deteriorating and leaking for some years now. And I know the “never trust a fart” situation very well.
Viking funeral?
I am very wary of farts, and letting a good one go in private used to be one of those harmelss little pleasures. *sigh*
I worked supplying bait to charter operations in my youth. Man, that was a strange, hazy blast for my teenage self. It was a tourist economy which meant the locals had a limited number of months to relieve the rubes from as much cash as quickly as possible. And we did. In the summer the cops looked pretty much the other way for they had all winter to return to beating in Westport’s Indians, drunks and poor. Cocaine was everywhere. Good times, good times.
Larry: Most of those charter owner/operators didn’t go anywhere. The Captains of these now derelict boats were working class guys who busted their asses off, bought a boat, and then maybe another one, and for three or four decades made a living wage until the long overdue enforcement of the Treaty rights of Northwest Tribes destroyed the economics of charter fishing. The young men who crewed the boats left the county for good. As for Captains, some found other work on the water and some went into the woods. A few took up careers outside of natural resource extraction but many more went nowhere and died prematurely right there in Grays Harbor. Drinking was popular way to go but gunshots, auto wrecks, domestic violence and no health care were also effective.
There is nothing is unique in this tale of a crashed economy save that it happened under the perpetually leaking leaden skies of Washington State. The owners of these once Pride of, now perils to, the Sea are not the Capitalist Pigs we should be looking for.