Boat roams the river

Uncertainty exists about what can be done with an abandoned boat that broke free Monday from the place it had been resting for seven years. It came to rest next to a barge on Front Street, according to sources.
Leonard Price, of Morgan City, said a 120-foot by 45-foot fiberglass catamaran broke free Monday night from where it had been resting for seven years in the Atchafalaya River. The boat belongs to George Moench, who now lives in Ecuador, Price said. Moench abandoned the boat about seven years ago on private property, which Price now owns, at the north end of Front Street in Morgan City on the Atchafalaya River, Price said.
Price did not have a current phone number to be able to reach Moench, he said.
Price bought the property where the boat was resting until Monday, he said. “We’ve been trying to get the Coast Guard, the sheriff’s department, the city of Morgan City, anybody that would listen to do something about the boat and move it,” Price said.
“Nobody has lifted a finger to do anything, especially the Coast Guard,” Price said. The sheriff’s office also would not do anything, Price said. The boat broke loose Monday night from where it had been resting when wind pushed the vessel off a sand bar to Lange Towing on Front Street, Price said. The boat came to rest against a barge, Price said.
Price said Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi called the Coast Guard and the sheriff’s office, and “he couldn’t get anybody to lift a finger to do anything.”
Coast Guard Capt. David McClellan, commanding officer Marine Safety Unit Morgan City, said the boat is currently out of the waterway, is not a hazard to navigation, and no one has reported any pollution on the vessel. McClellan “doesn’t have very much jurisdiction” to do anything with the boat, he said.
McClellan said he was told the vessel is about 60 feet long. No engine is on the boat as well as no cleats on it, which make the boat difficult to tie to anything, McClellan said. “We worry about stuff that’s either a hazard to navigation or it’s polluting. That’s really kind of our biggest concerns,” McClellan said. “If it’s not either one of those, I’m very limited in what I can do with it.”
Price said, “If a 120-foot boat drifting down the river isn’t a hazard to navigation, I don’t know what is.” Moench, the owner of the boat, now lives in Ecuador, Price said. The boat was “an old passenger ferry from Sweden,” Price said.
Price cited a parish ordinance that has specific wording about abandoned vessels, he said. “It says that any abandoned vessel in the parish waters, of course the Atchafalaya River is in the middle of parish waters, can be seized with one month notification,” Price said. “After the boat is seized it can be put up for public auction and done away with.”
A property owner next to Price’s property on Front Street has been fighting the issue for a long time, too, and has not been able to get anyone to do anything either, Price said. Price hired attorney C.E. Bourg to intervene in federal court in Lafayette against Moench to try to get the court to do something, but the court did nothing, Price said. “It’s just been a nightmare, and it still is for somebody,” Price said.
The Daily Review received a copy of a state law from Bourg’s office, which says that the owner of any vessel that has been left unattended in a waterway must be removed by the owner within 30 days of receipt of a written notice from the governmental authority with jurisdiction.
If the owner cannot be identified or located by the authority, the authority shall publish a notice that the vessel shall be removed by the authority at any time after the 30-day period of publication of the notice at the cost of the owner and shall be disposed by the authority, according to the law provided by Bourg’s office.
McClellan said if a vessel is a hazard to navigation, he has the authority to direct the vessel, he said. “Or if it’s an imminent pollution threat, then I can direct the owner of the vessel to move the pollution threat,” McClellan said.
McClellan has “limited authorities to exert” on the vessel in its current situation, he said. If the vessel was to break loose again, the boat would then be a hazard to navigation, McClellan said. The Coast Guard would then have to give a broadcast alert to mariners of the potential hazard, he said.
In such an instance, McClellan could direct owner of the vessel to move the boat, he said. “It’s probably unlikely that the federal government is going to be a really good solution to the problem,” McClellan said. How the vessel managed to break loose is interesting to McClellan because he has seen it a couple times before, and the boat “was in no way, shape, or form ready to break loose,” he said. “Somebody had to break it loose because we haven’t had a flood lately,” McClellan said.
McClellan has not seen any winds recently that could have broken the vessel loose, he said. “I think it was an act of man,” McClellan said.
Price said the water rose a foot and a half Monday in the Atchafalaya River, and then Monday night that foot and a half of water rushed down the river. Price believes a combination of that water rushing down the river and the wind broke the boat free, he said.
Price said Lange Towing officials were told by Coast Guard officials that if Lange Towing moves the boat away from its barge, the company would then be responsible for the boat. The Daily Review called Lange Towing this morning, but no one answered the phone.
As of this morning, St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Lt. Sennet Wiggins said the Coast Guard is handling the matter and sheriff’s office is not currently involved with the case.