We Binned Our Boat

Guest Blog by Graham Chamberlain and Barb Hardy

Sidney Spit, 2009
All photos by Barb Hardy

In January 1993, up in Genoa Bay, we bought a twenty year old 37 foot ferro cement sailboat from John Sampson. We circumnavigated Vancouver Island that year, and then for a number of years averaged 100 nights onboard up the outside coast north of Tofino.  We wintered in the Sea of Cortes 96/97 and then lived on and off the boat in Comox & Tsehum Harbour through till 2008.  Though the engine had died in Mexico, and we had removed the old Atomic, we had successfully sailed up through Arran Rapids and north with a small 5hp on the stern. Ashore 2008, after 6 great weeks in the San Juan’s, we became overwhelmed caring for a 100 year old heritage house in Victoria. On the cement-hulled boat the wood decks leaked, mold set in and 3 weeks painting, cleaning and a refit in the summer of 2011 gave us only 10 days at a can in Sidney Spit.

Her last transit before being broken up

I turned 60 in early 2013, and with bad arthritis, we bought a wonderfully maintained 30 year old Campion 310 trawler. Two happy summers up the Broughton’s, Barkley Sound etc and we knew we would never use our sailboat again. And the mushrooms on the ferro-cement sailboat were taking over. What to do?

Sinking her seemed un-ethical – no fuel tanks or engine, but lots of wood, deck-head insulation from Mexico, arborite, wiring etc would float off and be a hazard. We had a ton of offers of those wanting to use her as a “live-aboard”. Fireplace, gimballed oven, water-maker, spacious and for free – but with a broomstick up her shaft tube few have the skill today to sail 11 tons without any reverse shifter – so she would probably have ended up a derelict sinking in some small bay.  

So we binned her.

I’ll be honest around the costs, as that is what everyone questions us on. I’m not sure we did this the best or cheapest way, but I’ve 40 year’s boating and shipyard experience along this coast and it made sense to me. We didn’t ask for quotes for each stage, or dicker - we just paid what was invoiced.

1. We stripped the boat of the main valuables – gimballed oven, diesel stove, winches, anchor, mast, windlass and put them on Used Victoria - $2200 back from quick sales….
2. It cost $600 for the mast to be removed….
3. We paid a local shipyard $800 for haul-out and the 5 days waiting to get her binned…
4. We paid $1700 for a bin, trucking and fees at the dump for the 7.5 tons of remaining rubble, and
5. We paid a friend $775 with a jaws-of-death “Spyder” back-hoe thingie to crush and twist the boat for 2 hours and chuck it all in the bin (sinks, stanchions, head, water tanks, a significant cement keel and hull).

We had stripped the boat in June 2014, gone travelling, and then late November co-ordinated the mast removal, crushing and disposal in less than a week (start to finish).  Wow!

The jaws of doom

It was emotional to see a boat we had lived on, raised our girls on, grounded, had fires onboard, etc etc (as all boater yarns go), being crushed in chunks as if some tyrannosaurus was attacking the TWO of US. But we feel a monkey is now off our backs, that our loved boat will not blight our gorgeous coastline as some derelict, and that we have done the right thing – and can now move on.

Thank you to those that had patience as we came to this decision, and helped us as we did it! And to all the old salts that sauntered by proffering free advice and offers to help us selectively remove parts they saw of value. We fondly remember our gleaning various “treasures of the bilges” offered on VHF each morning on the cruisers net in the Baja.

We are off to Alaska April-October 2015 on our “new” (30 year old) trawler.

Cheers!

Graham

gbc53@telus.net

Down at the Dock: Derelict Vessels and Green Boating Solutions

Photo by Alan Wilson

Recreational boating is an incredibly attractive pastime - who wouldn’t be attracted to time spent out on the water with family and friends?  Unfortunately, those who have never experienced the reality of owning a boat are more susceptible to being lured into taking a boat that’s offered for free or buying one on the cheap, and the results aren’t always good. Boaters know what I mean when I say that owning a boat is never cheap – in time or money – and the one in my yard in need of some serious TLC is a testament to that!

Unfortunately, if boat upkeep and the associated costs are not borne by the boat owner, the burden is frequently passed along to the community and the environment when that vessel reaches a problem state. It is only a matter of time before trouble comes along, as untended vessels will certainly end up adrift, washed ashore, or possibly even sunk. Unmaintained boats release fuel and other toxins into the marine environment, putting marine life and habitat at risk, not to mention the danger they pose to mariners and beachgoers and the damage they can cause to shoreline facilities.

The biggest challenge we have in mitigating the impacts of problem vessels is the jurisdictional quagmire that surrounds them. You’ll know what I mean should you ever want to contact the proper authorities to notify them of an incident - there’s a good chance you will be bounced around to various agencies such as the Coast Guard, Transport Canada, the Provincial Emergency Program, the Receiver of Wrecks, the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, the local government, or perhaps even the police. In fact there is such confusion surrounding the issue that BC’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations has recently published a very useful 12-page guide, Dealing with Problem Vessels and Structures in BC Waters.

Ryan handing out our Guide to Green Boating
Photo by Michelle Young

The good news is that there are solutions:

• Clean Marine BC is Georgia Strait Alliance’s green boating and marina eco-certification program, and has distributed tens of thousands of our Guide to Green Boating. A clean, well maintained boat is a greener and safer boat, thereby reducing our environmental impacts, as well as helping to ensure that our experience is more enjoyable.
• MP for Nanaimo-Cowichan, Jean Crowder, is proposing legislation designating the Coast Guard as a receiver of wreck and requiring them to take reasonable steps to contact the owner and also to provide for government to make regulations on the removal, disposition or destruction of derelict vessels. The intention is to give the Coast Guard the regulatory power it needs to take action before a derelict vessel becomes a problem.

Bill C-638 is a step in the right direction in dealing with the jurisdictional quagmire surrounding derelict vessels. Please support this bill by writing the Minister of Transportation, Lisa Raitt (lisa.raitt@parl.gc.ca), and by contacting your MP. For more information on Bill C-638, visit http://openparliament.ca/bills/41-2/C-638/ and http://jeancrowder.ndp.ca/derelict-vessels.

It is up to boaters like us to prevent our pastime from becoming someone else’s headache. Let’s keep our boats afloat…Down at the Dock!

Clean Marine BC at the Vancouver International Boat Show

The Vancouver International Boat Show is underway! GSA staff, volunteers, and our mermaid Georgia are at BC Place handing out our popular Guide to Green Boating.

Boaters are also keen to learn about our Clean Marine BC eco-certified marinas, yacht clubs and boat yards. Our booth includes a gorgeous map of the 25 member facilities - 9 that are certified with another 16 enrolled and working towards their certification.

Boating BC Association, owners of the Vancouver International Boat Show, have put together a great video called Spotlight on the Environment: Clean Marine BC Program. If you are unable to come by our booth for a glimpse of this great video, you can watch it here:

We will be here for the whole show which runs 10 am to 8 pm, and until 5 pm on the last day on Sunday. If you are going to be here, please pop by our booth (#255) and say hello.

Join our Citizens' Forum on January 28 and have your say on the future of Vancouver's waterfront!

In the last few years, we have seen a trend that is encouraging for those who are interested in how we live in cities around the world: residents are increasingly claiming an active role in shaping the future of their communities. After all, they are the people who make up the community, they are the ones who use public infrastructure, and they are the ones affected by city planning.

We are excited to help give Vancouverites a voice in determining the future of the city's shorelines.On January 28th, 2014 (6pm-9pm), Georgia Strait Alliance is hosting Vancouver’s first Waterfront Citizens’ Forum at Creekside Community Centre, 1 Athletes Way (Olympic Village) to envision what a sustainable and prosperous shoreline could look like. To help us with the planning of the event, we ask all participants to register here! 

All participants will have a chance to win tickets for an exciting zodiac tour of the harbour with SeaVancouver and a family pass to Science World.

Our city’s shorelines along Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River are beautiful, but they are also under threat from development and pollution resulting from increasing urbanization, industrial and population growth that is not based on principles of sustainability. How can we work together as a community to find answers to these challenges?

If you live in Vancouver - no matter how near or far from the water's edge - this Forum is your chance to join the conversation about the future of our city’s harbour, beaches, shoreline parks, seawall, and to become part of a collaborative effort to strengthen Vancouver’s connection to the water. What do you want Vancouver’s shores to look like in the future? How are we going to move people and goods around on the waterfront? How can we all continue to benefit from the city’s connection to ocean and river? These are some of the questions that we will be discussing at this Forum.

We hope you will be part of this dialogue. If you can't make it, there will be further opportunities to share your ideas and views with us. We also encourage you to join the continuing conversation online. 

If you would like to learn more about the Forum or our Waterfront Initiative, please contact Sebastian Merz at 604-633-0530 and sebastian@georgiastrait.org

A tale of inaction – signifying nothing good for the orca

The news we received last week was troubling.  A young female southern resident orca was found dead in the Strait, the 4^th death in a year for a population that now only numbers 77 individuals.

Today we found out that this orca was pregnant with a full-term fetus and the bad news is doubled.

Photo: Lance Barrett-Lennard

When a small endangered population of animals loses a young female, the long-term negative impacts are devastating. To learn that with her loss, we have also lost a new member of this population is even more disheartening.

But this story is about more than just the incredible sadness of seeing a majestic animal in trouble but about what happens when our government ‘fiddles while Rome burns.’  If we care at all about this species and want to understand why it has such an uncertain future, we need to be clear on who the finger should be pointed at.

Southern resident orcas were declared endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act in 2001.  Soon after, killer whales scientists were brought together to begin drafting a recovery strategy for the species using the best available science to identify key threats to the species. 

The recovery strategy was due to be released in 2006, but it took another year and the threat of a lawsuit before it saw the light of day in 2007, with the orca’s critical habitat identified.  For a species to recover, the habitat critical to its survival must be identified and protected.

By 2009, we and our partners were back in court as the government was accused of failing to issue an order under its own Species at Risk Act to protect critical killer whale habitat.  They had a plan, but were delaying action.

The lawsuit pushed the government to issue the order, but the foot dragging continued and by 2010 we were back in court, this time with the government being accused of failing to legally protect all aspects of critical habitat for southern and northern resident killer whales.

Are you seeing the pattern yet?

By the end of 2010, the federal court ruled decisively in our favour, but by then 4 years had passed as we fought our government to enact their own laws, as tax payers money was wasted when it could have been spent acting to make the Strait healthier for the orca.

In 2011, we fought the government again as it attempted to reverse some aspects of the previous ruling and in 2012 we won again.

And then we waited.

Once threats to a species are identified in the recovery strategy, an action plan for mitigating and addressing these threats must be created.  It took until early 2014 for the draft action plan to be released (a year late), a plan which one again revealed how little commitment the government has to making change for the orca as its pages were filled with more research and inaction – and very little good news for the orca.

So here we are. 

Photo: Lance Barrett-Lennard

Southern resident orcas are an important indicator of the health of the Strait.  Their struggles show how threatened this body of water is and how little that matters to those with the power to do something about it.  And it’s about more than that.  If our government is so disinterested in protecting an iconic and well-loved species such as the orca, what does that mean for the 118 other at risks species in the Salish Sea?  It means we have a serious problem.

As frustrated as I am by the federal government’s inaction, as always, I am heartened by the passion and love that those of us who live along these waters have for the Strait and the orcas that live here. We see the big picture – both environmentally and economically – and know what the orca’s fate really means.

It’s not too late, and our job is to increase the pressure – with all of you standing right by our side – and stop the foot-dragging by our government.  We will also work with the scientists, local governments, business and industry who understand what’s at risk if we continue to do nothing.  Lucky for us, that list is long.

As seems to be the way these days, our government has abandoned its job of being steward of the environment, so it’s up to us to take the reins.  And we will so that in the years to come the news will be happier for the orcas and all of us who call the Strait home.