Sunday morning’s 8:30 a.m. high tide provided the window of opportunity, and a group of at least a dozen Edmonds’ Ebb Tide condominium residents banded together in a steady rain to assist Captain Dan McGlasson’s marine towing crew in removing the 35-foot Chris Craft that washed up on the beach in front of their homes last week.
First step was running a tow line from the stranded cabin cruiser to McGlasson’s inboard diesel sailboat anchored approximately 200 yards offshore. When the initial line proved too short, two stalwart souls in kayaks paddled out to meet halfway and secure a second line to the first.
With the two boats securely connected, McGlasson’s crew powered up the diesel, put some purchase on the line, and the Ebb Tide residents — many wading waist deep in the water, — joined in an heroic effort to push, pry and otherwise free the stranded craft from the beach.
A cheer went up when it finally floated free, and made its way under tow off the beach and out into Puget Sound.
— Story and photos by Larry Vogel
Where are they towing the boat to? The seas are very rough.
Nice work by Ebb Tide residents! Cold and wet work! Some questions are lingering: whose boat is it, where was it moored when it broke loose, and where was it being towed?
My big number one question is why was an obvious threat to the environment and public safety left on the beach any longer than necessary when the solution was mere yards away and readily available. Maybe something to do with the city trying to take claim to the Ebb Tide private beach perhaps? An object lesson of some sort? This is an opportunity for a bigger MEN exclusive I think.
Great job! Readers want to know – where did they take the boat? Did they tie it up at the Edmonds Marina or take it down to a marina closer to Seattle?
Last we heard the boat was at the Edmonds Marina, tied up as seas were too rough to take it anywhere else Sunday. As for the owner, we did speak with him but the information he provided was unclear and not immediately verifiable. If we learn more details we will provide them.
— Teresa
A cold wet job well done!
What I heard is that the derelict boat was first tied up to a piling in front of the new Waterfront building and then somehow broke free and ended up on the disputed private/public patch of beach in front of the Ebb Tide. My question would be, why didn’t the city police and fire district just remove the boat from the public beach area in front of the new center where and when they would have had every right to do so in the interest of both environmental protection and public safely? I think that is a very reasonable question to ask. Also how did this derelict craft manage to end up on the one specific spot of local beach that happens to be in litigation? Kind of an interesting coincidence.
To answer your questions…
Liability. Once someone/s or something/s touch a vessel like this they automatically become liable to it.
Liability equates to money. It does no matter, fire, police, uscg, private party. They all deal with the same liability.
As to where it ended up on the beach, it’s highly unlikely this is anything but coincidence for the reason laid out above. Derelict boats, derelict boat owners are a huge problem where ever their is a navigable body of water.
Unlike a car, a boat has negative value once it reaches “derelict”. A land based vehicle at least can be crushed and recycled for it’s steel. A boat, not so much.
Aaron, I’m not a lawyer and maybe you are; but I don’t think you are correct about this. You are telling us that the police or Coast Guard with police powers, don’t have the right to impound a derelict vessel as a threat to public and environmental safety. I very much doubt that this is true. You are telling us that a derelict vessel automatically has negative value. I also seriously doubt that this is true when the vessel is a classic old Chris Craft that is in fairly good condition and has some sort of metal power plant that would have salvage value running or not. As to where it ended up, I suspect you are right that this was just a coincidence; but I still think it was an interesting one.