
photo by Mark Aronoff Associated Press
“Sinking but See-Worthy?”
By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 3:29 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 3:29 a.m.
At low tide, the sailboat Happy lists heavily to starboard in the Bodega Bay mud flats, where it has been mired for six months.
“It’s a curiosity. People want to know if they can go out to it, does it have a long history, what’s the skinny on it, tell me the dirt,” said Julie-Ann Hill, a tourist adviser at the Sonoma Coast Visitor Center. “They want to go back home and to say ‘I saw the ghost boat out there.’ ”
The 57-foot boat is easily seen from the road and bayside businesses, and it’s become something of an attraction.
“It adds character to the bay,” said Matt Hoplamazian of Santa Rosa.
“They should leave it, although I just hate answering all the questions about it,” said Chris Jimenez, a bartender at Tides Wharf, which overlooks the wreck. “It’s a sinking boat, something to look at.”
The boat was abandoned last fall by its owner, Dan McGillicuddy, who fell behind in mooring fees at Spud Point Marina in the bay and was evicted.
“At the moment he owes $8,300,” said Mary Burns, director of Sonoma County Regional Parks. “He apparently tried to move the boat, but the Coast Guard intercepted him and said the boat was not seaworthy. He anchored it in the channel, and a storm moved it onto the tidelands.”
Attempts to contact McGillicuddy were unsuccessful.
Sonoma County thinks abandoned boats are neither quaint tourist attractions nor harmless, said Mike Wagner, the county’s manager of real estate.
“In somebody’s mind it may become charming, but in reality they blow around, they can be come potential hazards to navigation, they leak toxics into the water, kids go out and play on them, they can get hurt,” Wagner said. “They on no level are charming; they create hazards.”
The county has jurisdiction over the tidelands, and the Sheriff’s Department is dealing with the owner to have the boat removed, Wagner said.
People at Spud Point who know McGillicuddy said he got himself into financial bind.
They also say the boat now is too badly damaged to save.
“The best thing they could do is take the oil and diesel fuel out of it, cut off the mast and scuttle it,” said Steve Ayers of Bodega Bay, caretaker of the fishing boat Mandy. “Take it out 10 or 12 miles and make a fish habitat out of it.”
McGillicuddy bought the boat in 2003, when it was moored at the marina, and kept it there until he was evicted in January 2007 for non-payment of berth fees, according to Spud Point Marina records.
It was anchored in the harbor outside the marina, but was dislodged by a storm last fall and pushed up on to the mud flats, out of the federally controlled channel, Spud Point manager Noah Wagner said.
“We have boarded it twice or maybe three times and it is not seaworthy,” said Petty Officer Steve Kennedy, who is at the U.S. Coast Guard station at Doran Park. “As long as it’s not within the channel, we won’t really mess with it. I know it’s an eyesore, and I am not sure the progress of what is happening with it at this point.”
The keel of the boat, which has a ferroconcrete hull, is firmly lodged in the mud; the sail is shredded and flapping in the wind.
Mike Wagner said removing the boat may cost the county thousands of dollars and take several months to go through the legal process.
“I don’t think we will let it sit there and rot. We will try to get this guy to clean up his mess. And if he doesn’t do it, there are remedies under the law,” Wagner said. “He needs to do what’s right.”
The Visitor Center’s Hill said she can see the sailboat from her home above Porto Bodega Marina, and uses it to judge the wind and tide.
“When the tide come in, it raises itself up like a lady ready to go to sea, and then like an old lady it lays on its side when the tide goes out,” Hill said. “Happy is not happy.”