Fishing boat sinks in Morro Bay harbor after city tried to help ‘semi-homeless’ owner
A derelict fishing boat that had been moored in the Morro Bay Harbor for decades sank over the weekend.
The vessel Lady Maxine sank overnight Sunday, but the Morro Bay Harbor Department wasn’t alerted in time to prevent it from going under, said Eric Endersby, the city’s harbor director.
The Harbor Department discovered the mostly submerged vessel on Monday morning with all but its masts under the water.
Endersby said the boat is a 1970s-era wooden vessel that had been used for fishing in past years, but it hadn’t been in service for commercial fishing for about 15 years or so.
The boat’s owner wasn’t aboard when it sank and nobody was injured, Endersby said.
“It was a derelict boat that we were trying to work with the owner to fix or remove,” Endersby said. “He’s semi-homeless and lives on the boat part of the time. But we weren’t able to get him to do anything about it.”
Endersby declined to identify the owner, saying he had a lease agreement with a private mooring owner. The city wasn’t able to enforce a lien or evict him as it would on a public mooring space.
“Since the boat was on private property, our hands were tied with what we’re able to do with it,” Endersby said.
Endersby said the city offered to help by providing state grant money in city coffers for derelict boat mitigation, but the owner declined.
“We usually get a grant every year from the state for derelict boat mitigation and demolition, and we have a little bit of money left right now that we’d been trying to work with the owner on to use,” Endersby said. “We’d been able to remove the fuel and oil off it to prevent pollution, but nothing really beyond that.”
At a Morro Bay Harbor Advisory Board meeting in 2017, a city staff report noted the Lady Maxine was possibly sinking and took measures to avoid its submersion.
“Harbor Patrol was alerted that a vessel on a mooring was possibly sinking,” the staff report noted. “Harbor Patrol found the Lady Maxine taking on water and listing portside about 45 degrees. Sounds of water could be heard pouring into the vessel, and dewater pumps were utilized to get ahead of leaks.
“The owner is intending to repair the wooden, 1970s era wooden vessel, and the Coast Guard has taken an official interest in the vessel as a threat to pollute.”
City contracts company to salvage sunken vessel
After the Lady Maxine sank, there was a slight bit of oil sheen on the water, but significant oil pollution was avoided, according to the harbor director.
Harbor officials have recovered chairs and other debris that spilled into the waters of the harbor.
Jim Sanders of California Marine and Salvage was contracted by the city to conduct salvaging efforts with a dive team on Wednesday, bringing the boat out of the water for demolition, Endersby said.
Endersby said that the city isn’t trying to recoup the costs for salvaging the Lady Maxine because of the owner’s limited financial means and the likely possibility that officials would spend more on attorney’s fees than any fine compensation they’d receive.
“The amount of time and money we’d spend on attorneys, trying to pursue this, would far outweigh the funds we might recover because we’ll probably never get anything from,” Endersby said. “He’s not working as far as I know.”
Endersby said that most of the 30 boat owners who live in the harbor are responsible and keep up their vessels, but boats shouldn’t be used as a low-cost housing option.
“Boats are expensive and require a lot of upkeep and they’re not a good housing solution for low-income folks,” Endersby said.
This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 2:37 PM.
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