Last summer I wrote about a boat that a friend of John Steinbeck’s rented from someone else. Pulled off the bottom after sinking, it was brought to PT to be restored by a developer from Salinas, CA, eventually to be used in a Steinbeck museum there.
It’s in the same place, and absolutely nothing has been done to it.
Boat Haven, the Port Townsend boatyard authority, required and got a $20,000 deposit for parking it there, and charged regular fees for space “on the hard” while he restored the boat.
The deposit was taken because it’s well-known the guy is a crook, always finagling a way to get something for free. It works pretty well as he is extravagent in cars, boats, dress, and life-style. A rich man in life, a poor man in scruples.
When he didn’t pay his space rental fees (no one in the boatyard would do any work for him because they knew he’d screw them), PT sued him. He counter-sued, arguing that because the boat was of historical significance, the yard should be paying him for the privilege of housing it. He’s asking to be paid to park his relic there.
Every boat in the yard here has a story behind it, almost all better than his.