Residents of a Vancouver condominium development that overlooks the Fraser River are sick of the nearby gathering of dilapidated live-aboard and abandoned boats that they’ve dubbed the Mitchell Island Yacht Club.
Many of the ramshackle ships are sinking and falling apart, and residents say they’re an eyesore, an environmental burden, and a noisy nuisance. Making matters worse, authorities say they can’t do anything about them.
Port Metro Vancouver has jurisdiction over the area where the boats are, but says it would take an environmental or safety issue for it to get involved.
“They can’t really do anything about it,” said Mike Whitty, who has been a caretaker at Tugboat Landing, a four-building condo development built near the Fraser River roughly 16 years ago. “It is apparently no man’s land.”
He described the makeshift marina as “where boats come to die.”
It’s located east of the Knight Street Bridge on the northeast bank of Mitchell Island, which sits between Richmond and Vancouver. Less than 200 metres separate the boats from Whitty’s apartment in the 1800 block of East Kent Street.
The marina is a collection of fewer than 10 sunken, beached and bobbing vessels of all sizes, from small live-aboard ones to a massive, decrepit barge. Whitty said that at times, there are dozens of boats on site.
The centrepiece is a massive flat-decked, 20-cabin ship that Whitty said once hosted massive parties before it listed, took on water and sank to the river bottom.
“It’s far from a marina,” said Whitty. “It’s more of an eyesore.”
Most of the vessels are tied together and connected to the island by thick ropes and walkways. In the middle of the fray is Mad Canadian Marine Salvage, owned by David Labadie.
Labadie tears down old ships and sells off the salvageable parts. He said he holds a water lease for the area where most of the boats are and that some of the vessels are his or those of his business associate, Dominic Haché. But he said others just show up and drop anchor.
“They end up living there and you can’t get rid of them,” he said.
Labadie said the owner of the sunken flat-decked ship had rented its rooms to tenants before it sank.
Half-submerged and filled with mud, the ship is now tied to thick trees that line the property of Allied Ready Mix Concrete. Marv Berry, a superintendent at Allied, said they’re now stuck with the problem, and are planning to contract Labadie to dismantle the ship.
Tugboat Landing residents admit there were boats at the site long before their apartments were built, but say late-night parties and nautical antics are grating on their nerves. Lately, some have turned to authorities for help.
Among them is Sheila Hancock, who tried calling in a noise complaint on a particularly loud night but found her concerns ignored.
“It’s like theatre,” said Hancock, who described a bizarre sequence of events that included sinking ships that were dragged out into the middle of the river and abandoned, furniture and garbage floating out from within badly listing yachts, and at least one boat fire.
Nearby resident Ann Talbot recently alerted the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to the marina, suggesting the foundering ships may be oozing toxic materials into the water.
But Dan Bate, a communications officer for DFO and the Canadian Coast Guard, said officers only get involved when pollutants enter the water in sizable quantities or when there is a safety issue. Were it a navigational issue, he said, Transport Canada might be interested.
Yoss Leclerc, the director of operations with Port Metro Vancouver, said the authority does respond to noise complaints, but is generally unable to reclaim or boot abandoned and live-aboard boats.
“We have no right to just come and take a vessel unless it’s an emergency,” he said.
Until that time, the derelict boats of the Mitchell Island Yacht Club remain.
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