LAKEPORT, Calif. – A boat that sank earlier this month off a Lakeport pier and was subsequently broken apart by a winter storm was removed from Clear Lake on Saturday thanks to the work of county personnel and contractors hired by Lake County Water Resources.
On Monday, what's left of the “Casa-Nova” sat on a boat ramp near Andrew and Lynn Wallar's home at Rocky Point Cottages on Lakeshore Boulevard.
The Wallars said the boat is expected to be dismantled, possibly as early as Tuesday, before county officials have it hauled away. The Monday Presidents Day holiday delayed the work.
Along with another neighbor, Ulysses Mckeown, the Wallars have watched in dismay as the 28-foot 1960s-era boat, which was tied to a neighboring property owner's dock in shallow water on Feb. 5, has fallen apart just offshore of their homes.
Andrew Wallar said he regularly does cleanup in the lake, noting he often pulls junk – including in one recent case, boat motors – from the water. But this situation was far worse than usual.
“It's a mess,” he said Monday.
There was an attempt to put the boat into a boat lift before it was moved in closer to shore using a trolling motor in about 3 feet of water. The neighbors estimated that the boat sank sometime on the night of Feb. 5 or early on the morning of Feb. 6.
The subsequent big weekend storm that followed brought a large amount of rain plus wind. The wind caused big waves on the lake that broke the boat into pieces and scattered debris across the shoreline and tules.
“It didn't take long” for the waves to destroy the boat, Wallar said.
With the boat's owner making no attempt to remove the boat, the neighbors contacted county officials to ask for assistance, starting with the Sheriff's Marine Patrol, as well as Lake County Water Resources.
Lake County Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski said that, on average, a few boats sink in the lake every year.
If the vessels are hazards to navigation and use of the lake, the Sheriff's Marine Patrol handles them, Ruminski said.
If there is an obvious petroleum leak into the lake, Ruminski's agency responds. In those cases, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife may also get involved, he said.
Carolyn Ruttan, Water Resources' invasive special program coordinator – who also organizes regular lake cleanup events – ended up coordinating the effort to have the Casa-Nova removed from the lake. She said sheriff's Sgt. Don McPherson of the Marine Patrol also was working on the case.
On Wednesday, Ruttan secured a $7,500 cleanup and abatement grant from the State Water Resources Control Board to have the boat removed. Ruttan estimated that the removal was going to take all of that money and possibly more to carry out.
Ruttan then said she contacted a salvage contractor to set up the removal.
The operation took place on Saturday. Wallar said Ruttan was on scene all day – from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. – as the removal took place. Ruttan personally picked up and removed debris from the broken boat that was on the shoreline.
“She worked really hard,” he said.
Wallar said he also removed a significant amount of debris, but there's still more on the shoreline where the boat originally was docked.
At one point, the man who owns the boat – who the neighbors don't know – showed up during the salvage operation and threatened to call the sheriff on Ruttan, who they said gave no quarter and continued on with her goal of getting the boat out of the lake.
Using floats, contractor Bullfrog Diving raised the Casa-Nova, when was then moved around closer to shore, with Rich's Towing Service pulling it up out of the lake with its engine intact, according to the neighbors and Ruttan.
While the plan was to get the boat up onto a flatbed, Wallar said it was determined that they couldn't get the boat onto the truck, thus the switch to the plan to dismantle it.
Ruttan said a friend of the property owner – who lives in Riverside County – allowed the boat's owner to tie it to his dock.
“So the actual property owner is nowhere in sight,” she said.
Nevertheless, the property owner is still responsible, and so Ruttan said the property owner ultimately will be expected to pay the bill for removing the boat. If he doesn't pay it, a lien will be placed on his property.
The Wallars said a Marine Patrol deputy also told them that the boat owner may face a fine.
Mckeown and the Wallars praised Ruttan for her work to remedy the situation.
Ruttan, in turn, thanked Frank Ley and his family, Bullfrog Diving, the neighbors who assisted – including the Wallars – and Rich's Towing Service for their Valentine's Day efforts on behalf of the lake.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.