Wrecked Boat Removed

In the January 9 edition of ‘Lectronic Latitude, we reported on the sad plight of Sherry Mae, a Clipper Marine 30 that washed ashore at Ocean Beach around New Year’s. Some of the Coast Guard-provided information in that story was incorrect — namely the size of the boat and the circumstances of its grounding.

It seems that, while the unnamed owner was out of town for the holidays, his son took the boat out for a spin and ran into trouble in the fog. The details of what went down are murky but the Coast Guard confirms they received a report of a person in the water around 5 p.m. on December 29. By the time a lifeboat reached the scene, however, the San Francisco Fire Department reported that all three passengers had been pulled from the water, and that Sherry Mae was in waist deep water about 25 yards off the beach. The Coasties contacted the owner, who assured them he would remove the boat when he came back to town a few days later.

Unfortunately, human vultures picked Sherry Mae clean before that could happen, and as a result, according to a report in The Chronicle, the owner refused to pay to have the boat removed from the beach. On January 21, Sherry Mae was removed by the Golden Gate Recreational Area at a cost of about $4,000, a fee the owner is legally responsible for.