Boat that stayed too long leaves

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 18, 2003

Port of Everett officials said adios to the fishing vessel Marlin Thursday, but unlike most goodbyes, it wasn’t a sad occasion.

The port was glad to see the derelict vessel leave after multiple changes in ownership kept it in Everett for many months as it racked up an unpaid moorage bill of more than $70,000

"We’re definitely pleased the vessel has found a home as a commercial use," Ed Paskovskis, deputy director of the port, said Thursday.

Paskovskis said the vessel was auctioned off a few weeks ago, but drew no outside bidders.

The auction effectively cleared away all the liens on the vessel from debts incurred by the previous owners. So the port turned around and sold it for $45,000 to a Seattle company.

The sale was conditioned on the boat’s removal this month.

Paskovskis noted the sale price didn’t cover the $70,000 bill for the vessel, but he said the port was glad to get the amount it did.

Most of the cost was for moorage, not for any expenditures of money or labor by the port, he added.

The Marlin, built in 1944, had been an oiler in a Navy yard until it was converted into a fishing vessel. It had been used to transport fish products between Alaska and Puget Sound and was apparently en route to the Caribbean when it developed problems.

It was moored in Everett after a captain hired to pilot the vessel out of Puget Sound believed the steering was unsafe and reported it to the Coast Guard. Everett was the nearest port, and the boat wound up here.

The owners paid a total of about $50,000 in moorage, but the vessel changed hands about three times and the unpaid moorage bill started piling up.

Port officials had to work through a legal quagmire before arranging the auction and the subsequent sale.

Mike Benbow: 425-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.