The owner of a boat that ran aground in the Marlborough Sounds during high winds last month has refused to remove it, saying he intends to put it on TradeMe for $1.
The 100-tonne Golden Lea broke its anchor line in severe gales on October 16 in Mahakipawa Arm, and it was blown ashore that night.
Marlborough harbourmaster Captain Jake Oliver declared the Golden Lea a wreck, and ordered the owner, Patrick Hibell, to remove it by Monday, November 3.
But this did not happen, and Oliver said on Tuesday his office would have the wreck removed as soon as possible, depending on contractor availability.
The Marlborough District Council had the ability to recover the cost of removing wrecked boats from the owners.
The boat had been illegally anchored in Mahakipawa Arm for about three years, and the Marlborough District Council had issued Hibell with two abatement notices. Anchoring in the Sounds for more than 60 days without consent was banned by the Marlborough Environment Plan.
A council spokesperson said the council’s compliance team had been working with the owner to find a long-term solution since at least March 2024.
Hibell, a commercial flounder fisherman, said he thought he was within his rights to anchor in the bay if he moved its position every 60 days, and believed it was safely anchored on the day its anchor line broke.
The council did not have the authority to remove the boat and any attempt to do so would be “piracy and theft”, he said.
Hibell said he was quoted $4000 to refloat the boat, but without a pumping-out system the boat would likely sink again and could become “an environmental bloody hazard”.
“So I’m going to pull the pin, and put it up on TradeMe and let somebody else play with it.”
Oliver said any new owner would still need to comply with the wreck notice, and urged any perspective buyers to do their due diligence.
The council had received “various complaints” about the Golden Lea, a spokesperson said.
Pelorus Sound resident Stewart Bunn said his partner had noticed the Golden Lea drifting towards their property prior to its grounding.
“It narrowly missed another boat,” Bunn said.
“[If] it hit that boat, that’s certainly a major environmental problem because that’s a fibreglass boat, and it could have done it quite serious damage.”
The Golden Lea had been in “absolutely shocking condition”, he said. The owner would often use it to process flounder, which he caught in the bay with set nets.
Bunn said residents had been concerned for some time that the boat was not safely moored.
“I think there are a few people in the community who are frustrated that nothing has been done about the vessel for a number of years … that the current owner has been a bit disrespectful of residents in the Arm.”
Hibell said the boat had been well maintained, and he had been renovating the interior.
“It’s only because I’m the flounder fisherman that everybody’s upset,” he said.
Hibell said he wanted to thank the residents who helped during the grounding. The residents complaining should “stick to Coronation Street instead of bothering good, honest people”, he said.
Hibell had applied for a permanent mooring in Mahakipawa Arm in July, at a cost of about $1200, but it was unsuccessful due to opposition from neighbours, he said.
A council spokesperson said Hibell withdrew the application in September, before the council had made a decision.
The Golden Lea was built in Scotland in the 1940s, before travelling from England to Wellington via Tahiti in a record-breaking 67 days in 1963.
The boat was sold to the Skeggs Group and became an oyster dredger in Bluff for Barnes Oysters.
Barnes Oysters general manager Graeme Wright said the Golden Lea was a proud member of their fleet, but was decommissioned a few years ago due to rising maintenance costs.
By Kira Carrington for Local Democracy Reporting
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
