Still more Derelicts in the news

Photo by Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
As reported today in the Peninsula Daily News: (in Washington state)

PORT ANGELES -- A boat that was marooned in Port Angeles Harbor for eight weeks is finally high and dry.

The badly-damaged 36-foot Montana Drifter was towed from its partially-submerged state near the Rayonier property to the Port Angeles Marina on Saturday afternoon.

Jay Ketchum, owner of Affordable Services of Sequim and a professional diver, was hired by the state Department of Natural Resources to raise, secure and tow the grounded vessel to the marina, where it will be disassembled and taken to dumps and scrap yards.....

DNR contacted Ketchum about moving the boat about week ago, he said. They agreed to a contract ranging between $4,000 and $6,000 to move the boat, Ketchum said....

Gasper [the owner] was being fined $8.11 per day by the DNR, which was set to declare the Montana Drifter derelict on Feb. 16.

A couple of points, and a few of questions.

• Its nice to see gov't agencies actually declaring boats as derelict.
• I'm glad to see the DNR contracting out to private firms for the work.
• What are Mr. Ketchum's qualifications to be a professional diver?
• Is that reported fine amount correct? $8/day ???
• Was that contract put out to competitive bidding?
• Once the boat is on dry land, who is paying for the disassembly and transportation to the dump? Who will dispose of the hazardous materials still in the boat?
  

Derelict Disposal Company

photo: this is one way to dispose of an old boat. I rented a skip loader back in Marina Del Rey and we crushed 6 boats in one day.

I received an email from Joe Velardo, who Googled "derelict boat" and found RRR. He has started a new company called Derelict Vessel Solutions. He has put together a small web site. Joe indicated that he was inspired to start his new company in part due to his reading of my posts here at RRR about the derelict vessel issue. I wish him luck.

Joe, if you're reading this, your web site is a nice start, but please at least add some information about where you are located and what geographical areas you plan to service. If you are really serious about a business, you should provide a contact phone number.

Derelict Boat Issue Hits the Big Time

....as in Time Magazine, which printed an article titled America's Underwater Junkyard this week. Here is a snippet from that article:

Legislation is slowly beginning to change. Since 2003, Washington State's vessel removal program has led a crackdown on derelict boats, using ramped-up boat-registration fees as funding for the program, which has so far cleared 188 boats. "It gave us financial capability plus the legal hammer if we needed to use it," says Doug Sutherland, the state's commissioner of public lands. Other state officials have expressed interest in Washington's model. In September, the California legislature passed a bill to increase fines to owners of derelict vessels. And last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an act that
gives NOAA funds and authorization to remove abandoned vessels damaging coral reefs.

I've been harping about this issue since the second blog I ever put up way back in February of 2007: Derelict Boats create income opportunity.

So, two thoughts from me today:
A) I hope that C-PORT keeps abreast of this issue, as I predict that federal money earmarked for this kind of work will probably flow through the USCG, and we should ask that the funds be spent through competitive bidding to private industry, rather than just federal grants passed down to local and state authorities. If a few million dollars for derelict vessel removal ends up in the hands of places like Orange County, CA, you can bet our industry will never see a nickle of it.

B) I predict that in the next 10 years, derelict vessel retrieval and disposal will become a multi-million dollar industry, fueled almost entirely with public funds. A large portion of abandoned vessels are under 60' in length, and our industry has the resources to retrieve a bunch of those.

However, getting this kind of work will require determination and active particpation on your part, rather than just waiting around for the phones and radios to announce a job opportunity.

All indications are that next year will be a slow one for recreational boating, and that will mean less towing. If you have boats and pumps and divers and lift bags and manpower, you should begin planning to find alternative ways to keep those resources busy.

Here is one idea that I might try if I knew where there were derelicts in my AOR. I would go out and find these boats, take pictures, record the LAT/LON and the physical particulars like length, construction and condition. I would put all that into a database. Then, I would create a document that summarizes all this information and get that document into the hands of every single agency I could find.

Two things might happen. Someone might actually want the details, and I would offer to sell my data for a fee. Even better, decision makers at the agencies will probably view my company as one of the experts in this field, and that increases my chances of getting some of the work.

Cape May: Where Boaters BeGone

Ok, sorry for the very bad play on words on SeaTow's new slogan, Where Boaters Belong. When some boaters in Cape May, NJ just abandoned their boats, Phil Risko of SeaTow Cape May decided to step up to the plate, or in this case, dive down into the mud.

Salvage company cleans up abandoned boats in Cape May Harbor

At first you might think "he's nuts! All that work for free?". But step back and really examine this for a minute. Say his actual hard costs to pull a couple of boats up and to the dock is about $1000 for a diver and fuel (maybe less if he does his own diving). You couldn't buy this kind of good will and publicity for $1000. Also, its good practice and training.

I'm with Phil on this one; sometimes you just gotta do something 'cause its the right thing to do.

Wreck Removal Coverage

I was snooping around on the Progressive Insurance website, when I came across this item about boat insurance:

Wreckage Removal coverage is automatically included with Comprehensive and Collision coverage. If you use Comprehensive or Collision coverage, Wreckage Removal pays for reasonable costs you incur for any attempted raising, removal or destruction of the wreckage of your insured boat or PWC. Wreckage Removal limits vary based on whether or not you are legally required to raise, remove or destroy a boat or PWC.

Comprehensive & Collision is what we would call hull insurance. I guess its hard for them to break out of the auto insurance vocabulary. The part I find so interesting is their statement that the "removal limits vary based on whether or not you are legally required to raise...."

Last summer, I had a case where a boat settled on top of a mooring anchor's shank. Thats right - a 500# mushroom anchor shank came right up through the bilge between the engines. Pictured here is the top of the shank in his bilge, surrounded by our Rule 8000 pumps and hoses. The hole was about 4" in diameter. The job was an adventure in its own right, but back to the wreck removal issue.

The boat owner was insured with Liability only insurance through Progressive (not Comp & Collision). The local Harbor Master wrote a letter (after the job) that said that the owner was liable to remove his vessel from the town mooring field. We charged a six figure fee to get this boat safely on to a trailer, and Progressive re-imbursed him the entire amount. Now that's a happy ending for everyone.

Got Reef?

A 32' boat receives massive fine:
Maui News $550,000 fine levied for sunken tour boat

I'm still searching for details about this, including who was the "salvage specialist" that was mentioned, but cases like this might get the attention of insurance companies who are outraged when asked to pay 10-20% of insured value to keep a boat from sinking.

Pollution prevention and protection of ecological areas like reefs, shellfish beds, and protected marine environments is the future of marine salvage, just as it has become in the blue water, large ship salvage industry.

Next time you send a bill for keeping a boat from sinking or off the beach, and the insurance company says "but, you didn't do anything but tow the boat [or pump the boat]" send them this article and suggest you may have saved them a huge fine. I know we all don't have fragile reefs in our area, but which beaches or oceans do the insurance companies want to say are expendable?

Gov't getting involved with derelict disposals

Saw this today:

How to Solve the Growing National Problem of Abandoned Boats

... the state governor signed a law allowing the sinking boats to be removed by
DNREC officials. Now if a boat is abandoned or adrift for more than 30 days, the
state can take possession and remove the obstacle. (Source: Delmarvanow.)

Yet more signs that derelict disposal is becoming an alternate income source for guys like us. But, who is persuing it? If we don't, will the state just have their agencies actually do the work?

Florida pays to dispose of derelict boats

Two different press releases today about removing derelict boats from Florida waters:

County hauls derelict boats floridatoday.com Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast

Capt. Kevin Miller of Absolute Marine Towing and salvage is under contract for $275,000 to remove nearly 70 boats from the Indian and Banana rivers, along with the Barge Canal. His work for the county will take him from the Sebastian River to Titusville.

UpdateFlorida: Project to clear waterways

Brevard County recently awarded the $275,000 job to Melbourne-based Absolute Marine Towing and Salvage Inc., which will start the project in late June or early July, pending approval from commissioners.

A $200,000 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission grant and FEMA reimbursements will cover the contract cost. The county is expected to contribute about $30,000 in matching funds, including the cost of monitoring the project.

Ranging from a 131/2-foot sailboat to a 72-foot yacht, the boats were declared "derelict vessels" after owners couldn't be identified or found

If the boats range from 13.5' to 72', would it be safe to say that the average is 40'? Lets see, 70 boats divided by $275,000 comes to $3928 per boat; an average of almost $100/foot. If you have some derelict disposal work in your area, now you have a general price range that your state and federal authorities might consider fair. I used to charge $100/ft to strip old derelicts and have them trucked to the county dump.

A Nice little wreck removal story

Found this story in a local New England newspaper:

Boat brought up from ocean floor - NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA

I doubt it will make any national coverage, but I thought you might like to see a nice little article about raising a burned up boat. No hype. I don't know the details other than what I read here.

How come Mike Goodridge always gets the good publicity?

Wreck removal continues to gain traction

Regular reader Dave Delano of Vessel Assist San Francisco Bay brought this to my attention:

Salvors Welcome New Nairobi Wreck Removal Convention

Times have changed and the main motivation for wreck removal today is often concern for the environment, rather than any threat to safety of navigation. We now have a new international instrument which recognises both priorities, in
full measure.

So far, this doesn't pertain to small vessels, but it will probably become some kind of model for the future of wreck removal in the USA.