TORONTO - A broken-down boat, which has been stranded on Hanlan's Point Beach since at least early December, was removed on Friday by a marine contractor hired by the Canadian Coast Guard.
The effort to remove the boat lasted about two hours.
Workers were seen pumping water out of the vessel, bordering it with a floating barrier, testing surrounding the water for pollution and sawing off the boat’s masts.
Then finally, the boat was hoisted aboard a large flat deck barge using a crane.
Two uniformed Coast Guard officers watched the entire process from the barge.
TorontoToday reported in January that the boat — which appears to be a lobster boat that was converted into a houseboat — was stranded on the beach after it lost power during a storm.
Toronto police, who visited the boat in January, said it appeared someone had at one point been living in the vessel.
Greg Skinner, a senior response officer with the Coast Guard, said the agency has monitored the stranded boat since its arrival on the Toronto Islands.
"In January, myself and a few other officers attended the scene,” Skinner said.
He detailed how officers removed all of the boat’s fuel and engine oil “to minimize any risk of pollution while we were going through getting contracts to have the vessel removed."
Coast Guard officers also attached the boat to an anchor buried in the sand to stop it refloating due to a change of weather conditions, he explained.
Despite the boat having a registration number, the Coast Guard hasn't been able to find its owner, and the process has been "a little arduous," Skinner said.
"Registration numbers very seldom mean anything,” Skinner said. “We've had a few where you look up the registration number and it's John Smith at 555-555-5555."
Time-lapse: Watch as the abandoned boat is prepared for removal
A Coast Guard spokesperson in January told TorontoToday the boat owner made themselves known to the agency, though officers could not release the owner’s name.
TorontoToday asked the Coast Guard to clarify whether or not the owner did indeed make themselves known, but did not hear back by publication time.
Skinner did not know the cost of the boat removal contract, signed with the Etobicoke-based construction company Galcon Marine.
On Wednesday, ahead of the removal, Skinner said the “easiest” thing to do would have been to hook onto the stranded boat and tow it away. However, the boat’s damaged hull made this impossible, necessitating the barge and crane.
"When we went on board, it was full of water,” Skinner said of the compromised boat hull.
Hanlan’s Point is clothing-optional, but on a chilly March morning nobody was on the beach, clothed or otherwise, save a reporter and the removal crew.
The beach is not served by a ferry in winter.
Abandoned boats in Toronto
The Coast Guard last week arranged for a derelict boat to be removed from the Leslie Street Spit. That boat was in better condition, so it was possible to strap it to the side of a tugboat to haul it away, Skinner said.
"That one took a little bit longer because there was a fair bit of ice,” he explained. “My contractor was having a hard time getting in there, but as soon as he had the weather window, he went over there and pulled it out. "
The problem of abandoned boats has plagued the city of Toronto for several years.
In 2022, city council passed a motion for the city manager to “assess the feasibility of entering into discussions” with the federal government to ask for more power to deal with such vessels, after two boats were left at public launches managed by the city.
Council also asked staff to come up with a plan to deal with abandoned boats in a timely manner, and to launch a campaign to educate the public about how to report an abandoned vessel.
Under current law, if a boat is abandoned and leaking pollutants, it is the job of the Coast Guard to remove it. If however, the boat is not deemed an imminent hazard, it’s Transport Canada’s responsibility to dispose of it.
In the past, this has left the city of Toronto waiting for many months for boats to be dealt with.
— with files from TorontoToday’s Gabe Oatley