Boating stories from Semiahmoo, WA
 

Just spent a couple nights at Semiahmoo Resort near Blaine, WA and
happened across a copy of the local newspaper, The Northern Light.

Two articles that may (or may not!) interest the folks here in
wrecked.boats...

Front and center, there was a large picture of El Primero, a
112-year-old 118-foot (or was it 118 years and 112 feet? Oh, well)
iron-hulled clipper-style luxury yacht, built by one of the then-richest
men in California and transplanted into the Northwest in 19-aught-6,
where she's been ever since. She's in outstanding condition, given her
age, and is now owned by a Canadian woman who wants to turn El Primero
into a floating B&B. The article noted that, as of a couple years ago,
El Primero still had one of her original tenders, a riveted-steel
lapstrake boat made by a company in Ballard, WA.

Unfortunately, the text of the article doesn't appear to be online and I
didn't keep a copy, so a small picture will have to make do:
http://www.thenorthernlight.com/imag..._2005/boat.jpg

Second, an article with the headline "Blaine youths take multi-modal
joyride." http://www.thenorthernlight.com/fp1.html

Here's the interesting part:
-------------
At about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Zazoo, a five-year-old 40-foot
Bayliner yacht belonging to Rick Seimears of Ferndale, was stolen out of
the Blaine Marina, near where the stolen Escort was found. It was
discovered by the Coast Guard at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning beached on a
sand bar just west of Lily Point at Point Roberts. The boat appeared
unscathed as it was driven onto a part of the beach that was free of the
large boulders that cover Lily Point at low tide. Though no value was
assigned to the recovered yacht, similar boats typically sell for around
$200,000 depending upon age and equipment.

The yacht was re-floated on the high tide and taken to the Semiahmoo
Marina where damage was assessed at $25,000.
-------------

Now, I rented a kayak for a couple hours this afternoon, and on the way
down to the docks I got a chance to take a look at the ZaZoo out of the
water in the marina's yard. According to the nice lady who worked there,
that $25,000 estimate is a bit low, especially since that's just for the
exterior damage. They hadn't yet looked at the engines because the
interior was so unbelievably and disgustingly trashed. Both props were
chewed almost to pieces, both prop shafts and both rudder shafts were
bent, as were the shaft supports. There was major damage to the gelcoat
and fiberglass along the keel, including a breach up near the bow.

Darn kids. What a mess - but aren't small-town newspapers great? :)

--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

So they got caught and confessed, now comes the "so what?" in juvenile
court...

it would be interesting to see how this all pans out.

"appeared unscathed", but $25k in damage??? That writer didn't have his
contradiction warning thing running.

Around 8/24/2005 10:02 AM, Doug Kanter wrote:

"appeared unscathed", but $25k in damage??? That writer didn't have his
contradiction warning thing running.

Yeah, aren't small-town papers great? :)

The reporter probably was only writing what the CG told him. Initially,
I'm sure it did appear unscathed; all the visible exterior damage was
likely buried in sand.



--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows