Yet another washed up boat without an owner is sitting on the beach of Cadboro Bay close to Gyro Park.
“This one is interesting, no owner has come forward but the boat is in fairly good shape,” said Harley Machielse, Saanich director of engineering. “The hull is in tact, and there are no immediate environmental concerns.”
The current sailboat is white, about 25 feet long and made of fibreglass. It showed up sometime during the windstorms between March 10 and 13. It’s been assessed for environmental concerns and reported it to the Coast Guard.
It’s light enough, and in good enough shape, that Saanich is hoping it can pull the boat back into the water, if it could just find the owner.
“We can’t make out the name and the boat doesn’t seem to be registered, we checked the number, so we’re hoping the owner will come forward or that the public will know more,” Machielse said.
Saanich has spent $50,000 on the removal of multiple boats since the fall. Coun. Judy Brownoff, with council’s backing, will table a motion for a derelict and abandoned boat removal program at the upcoming Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, April 8 to 10 in Nanaimo. From there the goal is to advance the issue to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (Sept. 26 to 30 in Victoria) and then to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
A windstorm in early March brought a sailboat, named the Nirmala, to shore in Caddy Bay. However, that one came and went, as someone came forward to take responsibility.
Machielse said Saanich is hoping the same situation will happen with the white sailboat ashore now. Otherwise Saanich will once again go through the process of applying to the receiver of wrecks and asking council to approve money (and staff time) for the removal, as it has a multiple times in the last six months.
Anyone with any information regarding the boat currently on shore in Caddy Bay is asked to contact Saanich engineering at 250-475-5575.