Four boats sitting in the Marina are abandoned and unloved, but their days of taking up space will soon be over.

The boats, abandoned in the Marina when their owners rented moorage and disappeared, will be destroyed now that Eureka has received a $28,000 grant from the Division of Boating and Waterways, a department of the state park system. The Humboldt Bay Harbor District was also granted $30,000 out of the Surrendered and Abandoned Vessel Exchange program.

People abandon or turn their boats over to the government when they no longer work, or when they simply can’t afford the upkeep. Sometimes people rent moorage and then disappear or die, and the boats are left to rot. Grant recipients use the money to pay third-party contractors to remove and destroy the boats. During their last funding cycle, the Community Services department destroyed six boats. 

Jeff Raimey, the Eureka Community Services Deputy Director, told the Outpost that it’s relatively uncommon for people to give them their boats if they’re not wanted anymore, though if it happens. When it does, they prefer to sell them. Currently, they have no method for people to surrender their boats to them on land because the abandoned boats in the Marina are all they can handle. When they’re destroyed, that service will resume. 

“We’re just trying to be good stewards of the bay,” Raimey said. “We’re working together with the Humboldt Bay Harbor District and some local groups … to deal with these issues, which can build up over time if the abilities aren’t there to get stuff out of the water.”