Boat owners staying afloat
Some boat owners whose vessels were damaged during the passage of Hurricane Beryl last year are hopeful that there will be adequate spaces to dry dock during the upcoming hurricane season.
They shared that desire recently as they continued to repair their boats at Bico’s parking lot and at Kensington Mall’s parking lot, both on Harbour Road, St Michael.
Fisherman and boat owner Harvey Corbin, whose boat Lady Muriel was extensively damaged, was one of the individuals who made that point.
“If we had someplace to dry dock the boats, we could have saved a lot of the boats.
“In June, half of the boats will be on land when the bad weather comes, so wherever they open or put in place, it should be safe,” Corbin said.
Edwin Holder, whose boat Sea Crystal was also significantly damaged, made similar comments.
“This boat get damaged at the Fisheries [Complex]. It was a lot of work but if I had known it was that bad, I would’ve left it in the water.
“Every year since I had this boat, whenever I stopped flying fishing, I would take it out of the water and take it to the Shallow Draught . . . and if that place down there didn’t close down, my boat would have been out of the water.
“So I would hope that they would have someplace to put them,” Holder said.
Both men shared those sentiments as they spoke about how challenging it has been since July 2024 when the Category 1 hurricane battered the coast. Over 200 boats were damaged during the system.
Lady Muriel was too expensive to repair, so Corbin bought a new fibreglass hull which he is in the process of building out.
“It was $250 000 in damage. It was ripped up. So to [repair] that it would be too expensive; it was not worth it.
“So I got this fibreglass hull that I had to work on to make sure it was correct. Thankfully my old boat did not sink. It was broken up, so I can transfer the equipment.
“I’m working on the inside to put back in the engine, the propeller, shaft and the rudder,” Corbin said.
After the storm last year, it was revealed that some boat owners did not have insurance.
Corbin said: “I used to insure years ago but they didn’t treat me good. I was losing out because fish does not catch like before and it became a waste of time,” he said.
After this new boat is completed, he said he will be seeking insurance.
“I think that is the best move because I can’t afford to lose this kind of money. This takes everything from you,” Corbin added.
Holder made similar comments about the insurance issue.
“I couldn’t afford to insure it because it didn’t make any money. To insure it would have been about $8 000 [a year] but it only fished for about six months,” he said.
Last month while leading off the debate on the Sustainable Fisheries Management Bill, 2024 in the House of Assembly, Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Adrian Forde revealed that Government spent almost $7.5 million to rescue, rebuild and restore the maritime sector in the wake of destruction caused last year by Beryl.
“We have spent, in terms of our business interruption benefit, for boat owners, for captains, for crew, and for the one-off payment for vendors . . . $5 496 000,” he said.
Forde said the Government spent a further $1 960 854.81 to repair boats.
He also said the breakwater at the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex is expected to be replaced by July.
Earlier this week, Chief Fisheries Officer Shelly Ann Cox said that 250 of the 312 boats actively fishing were returned to the sea.
She said that 70 boats returned to fishing [about] two weeks after Beryl.
“We’re up to about 70 successfully launched. There were some boats on dock, that weren’t damaged, that also launched. We’re probably closer to 250 vessels now,” Cox said.
On Harbour Road, carpenters and other workmen were repairing other boats.
Nico Griffin, who was working on Dove IV, said it was a challenging and technical process.
“This was a big challenge because this boat was really damaged. A lot of people said the owner would have to buy a new boat because it was split open.
“But the carpenter cut off the bad parts, put in PVC boards to realign it and put fibreglass over the PVC boards,” Griffin said.
Although there was more work to be done, he said much progress was made.
“We started the repairs in late November and by the middle of or the end of April, everything should be finished. It should be fully painted and ready to go back in the water,” Griffin said.
Hamilton Gibbons, who was working with fibreglass, also suggested that the process was tedious. But he was determined to complete the project.
“I start in January and I trying to work on the bottom now because it has a lot of fine cracks after it get hit on the jetty at Fisheries.
“The rudder was bent up and we are trying to get it back right,” Gibbons said.
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