After more than a year of stagnant sailing, Pinellas County contractor, Divecom Marine Services, removed an abandoned sailboat beached at the end of 49th St. S. in Gulfport.
Divecom workers removed the 33-foot sailboat, beached last year during Hurricane Eta, on August 26, Gulfport Harbormaster Denis Frain told the Gabber.
“The FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) had the case and they allowed enough time to go by for the County to deem the vessel salvageable,” Frain said. “I’d imagine that’s because the county has the funding to remove it; Gulfport doesn’t.”
Divecom is the same diving contractor that removed the large red boat – another victim of Eta – from Gulfport Beach this February.
“I believe the owner didn’t have the means or the money to remove it themselves,” Divecom co-owner Devin Boersma said. “I believe that’s typically what happens in these cases.”
Boersma noted the sailboat was “quite a bit smaller” than the red vessel previously removed.
“It looked to be anywhere from 10 to 12,000 pounds,” Boersma said. “Given how close to the shore she was, we brought in a tow truck to pull it and lift it in.”
The vessel is currently being reduced to bits at a facility in Palm Meadows, near Boynton Beach..
Gulfport resident Leslee Cramer witnessed the Thursday removal first hand.
“It broke apart while they were lifting it,” Cramer wrote in an email. “It kind of cracked apart but they strapped it well and did an excellent job.”
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