Do You Recognize this Mast, and Thus the Sunken Boat It’s Attached To?
Readers sometimes send us photos of boats that have sunk somewhere in the Bay. On this occasion we received photos from two different people of what we believe to be the same boat, which had been beached and then sank off Crown Beach, Alameda.
However, as neither photographer was able to tell us much, we thought we’d throw it out to our community in the hope of learning more about the boat that met this unfortunate end.
Here is what we do know.
Art Stiers, who sent us the first photo below, said, “It has since been refloated and towed somewhere. Looks to be about 30-ft, kind of a beater. He has been anchored off the beach for several months, was hard aground on the beach for a while before he got towed back out, and subsequently sank in place. I’m amazed he lasted that long given the wicked chop that develops in that area. Richardson Bay it is not, which is very good.”
Jeorg Bashir sent us this photo of what appeared to be a salvage team working on the vessel.
At first we wondered if the sunken vessel was the same one we had seen on social media a while ago.
So the question remains: What is the boat that sank off Alameda’s Crown Beach? Who owns (or owned) it, and what has become of it now?
Please tell us what you know, readers.
I live in Ballena Bay with my waterfront home (yes, it’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it) looking directly at Crown Point, Crown Beach, and the breakwater that separates Ballena Bay from Crown Beach.
There was a white sailboat anchored off Crown Beach for many, many months but has now disappeared. I believe it was served by the “red kayak.” Looked to be about a 30 ft boat.
Then there was the infamous yellow sailboat, about 27 ft. I first spotted it when it was drifting loose in Ballena Bay and almost struck several boats and/or fingers in the Bay. I then followed it on it’s eastward journey, grounding out in Crown Beach, further east along Alameda’s South Shore, and finally the passage between Alameda Island and Alameda’s Bay Farm “Island.”
Then the yellow boat reappeared in between the Ballena Bay land finger and the breakwater of Alameda’s Encinal Boat Ramp. It disappeared about a week ago, no idea where it went or what happened to it (maybe Davy Jones’ guest?)
I, too, would love to know what happened – as would dozens of my neighbors and members of the yacht club.
Today, Sept 3, we saw this boat off of Alameda coast just down from the Ferry. The houses across the street from the boat were on Creedon Circle neighborhood. The photos we took today are on my Google Drive at