Marine surveyors still assessing marooned vessel on Marin coast

Salvage crews were back on board a marooned fishing vessel north of Dillon Beach on Tuesday, trying to size up any damage to the boat and determine what fuels and other toxins were on board.

But the U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading the response to an incident that has unfolded since Saturday, when the 90-foot vessel that had gone adrift hours earlier ran aground on the rocks near shore, has released few details.

What’s known is that crews on the ground near the American Challenger observed “minor sheening” in the water and along the shoreline near the grounded vessel both Sunday and Monday, after a Saturday morning overflight first reported a sheen in the water.

It was unclear if there was any continuing spill or leakage, however, and no fuel has been removed from the boat so far.

In the meantime, teams were conducting cleanup in the area and several thousand feet of oil boom had been deployed in Tomales Bay as a precautionary measure, to protect commercial oyster bed there.

Contract crews also have been on board the boat since Monday trying to assess how much fuel is in the tanks, trying various methods to try to determine the answer.

The effort so far is being funded by the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which the Coast Guard said does not absolve the vessel owner of responsibility.

But in troubling news late Tuesday, the Coast Guard said that neither the American Challenger nor the tugboat Hunter, which had been towing it from Puget Sound to Mexico to be scrapped, were insured, raising questions about how the ultimate salvage might be paid for.

Locals have been worried about the cost and who bears responsibility for the wreck and whether it might be left to break apart in the surf.

Both vessels reportedly changed hands last year. The Hunter, long known as the “fastest tug in Puget Sound,” was sold last fall to an unidentified private interests by Crowley Marine Services after more than four decades in service. The American Challenger LLC was dissolved last spring, though tugboat Capt. Christian Lint, who took the job to tow it south to be scuttled, said a Miami man was its new owner.

But he said the fishing vessel was inoperable, which is why a plan was laid to “dead tow” it, with no one on board. It ran adrift when a steel shackle linking the tow lines failed near Tomales Bay, he said.

A Coast Guard cutter from Bodega Bay was standing by, but its crew did not intervene because the boat was deemed unsafe to board “due to weather conditions, the proximity to shore and the unknown structural integrity of the unmanned vessel.”

Lint has disputed that explanation, saying the American Challenger was still miles off shore and the water relatively calm when things first went awry, and argues the Coast Guard cutter could have helped him anchor the boat and prevented it from running aground..

Marin County Fire Battalion Chief Bret McTigue said ocean conditions had “improved dramatically“ Tuesday compared with heavy surf and large waves that on Monday crashed repeatedly over the bow of the vessel as it leaned on the rocks south of the Estero Americano.

But marine surveyors on board the boat still had to be put there by helicopter because of the difficulty getting them on deck otherwise.

McTigue said they were mainly “estimating how much product — oil, water, fuel, diesel — was on board the vessel, any hazardous materials that could be there that were compromised when it ran aground, what’s functional, what’s not functional, and then any damage to the actual hull, as that will play a factor in how it’s salvaged.”

Lint said Monday that he understood all but enough fuel for basic operations had been removed from the vessel before his journey began Feb. 28.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.