Crippled boat rescued, fuel spill averted by rapid response

Published 3:37 pm Wednesday, April 15, 2015

A rapid response and resources close at hand help to prevent a crippled power boat from sinking to the bottom of Shipyard Cove and minimize the amount of fuel leaking from the 36-foot vessel in the early morning hours of Tuesday, April 14.

The boat’s dock lines, tied to the cleats of finger-dock beside the vessel, kept the 36-foot “Sea Wolf” from dropping to floor of the cove, 40 feet below, until a crew from Vessel Assist was able to re-float it by mid-afternoon. The weight of the submerged vessel tugged and bowed the finger-dock about 45 degrees out of the water at various points.

The boat’s fuel tanks were believed to contain about 180 gallons of diesel at the time it sank, according to Vessel Assist Captain Deb Fritz. The boat had to be re-floated, stabilized and brought back up to the surface before its tanks could be safely drained, Fritz said.

While an oily sheen was visible on the water’s surface near the boat, Brendan Cowan of the local department of emergency management said a response team from the state Department of Ecology estimates that only about 5-10 gallons of fuel spilled out of the boat.

After being drained of fuel late Tuesday, the disabled boat was towed to an Anacortes marina for repair.

What caused the boat to take on water and sink remains undetermined. Shipyard Cove’s Arne Bentzen said it had been well-maintained by its owners, part-time residents who were off-island at the time, and described it as in “near yacht condition.”