Aquatic Park’s renegade sailor goes adrift ... and is arrested.
Renegade yachtsman Bryan Pennington was arrested Saturday afternoon after his trimaran drifted into other boats at Aquatic Park Cove and police boarded and took control of the vessel.
During the action by the San Francisco Police Department Marine Unit, Pennington allegedly became combative and was removed from his boat and cited on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.
“The boat was adrift, and it was a life and safety issue,” said Robert Rueca, public information officer with the SFPD. “We were trying to make the vessel safe, and he was on the vessel and he was taken to shore.”
The arrest happened at about 4 p.m., but Pennington’s boat, which has become infamous in the cove for being anchored without a permit for months, had apparently been adrift all day and scraping against other boats and the Hyde Street Pier.
Witnesses who watched the arrest from shore reported seeing Pennington forced to the deck by the officers and handcuffed before being removed. His trimaran was then towed by the marine unit out of the cove and tied up at the
Hyde Street commercial dock.
This was the second time in April that Pennington’s boat has been cast adrift and towed out of the cove. On April 5, it broke loose of its anchor when Pennington was not on board. A private company towed it out of the cove and to the Hyde Street Pier, where it came under the authority of the Port of San Francisco. The towing fee was paid by the National Park Service. The port has been trying to get rid of the boat ever since, and finally Pennington claimed it at around 4 p.m. Friday, according to port spokeswoman Renee Dunn Martin.
The yacht was again seen in Aquatic Park later Friday, according to Reuben Hechanova, president of the Dolphin Club, which has been at odds with Pennington because he anchored in the swimming lanes.
At 6:30 Saturday morning, Joe Boone, a swimmer with the South End Rowing Club, was walking in Aquatic Park when he saw Pennington’s trimaran banging against another boat. “I saw him on his boat drifting west,” said Boone. “He grabbed another buoy and tied up to it.” Boone then called police.
Rueca said the first call did not reach the SFPD marine unit until 3:15 p.m. The delay could have been due to jurisdiction issues. Aquatic Park is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, and is patrolled by the U.S. Park Police.
Park Police has to authorize any action by the SFPD Marine Unit, and there was plenty of action Saturday to keep the marine unit busy. “The situation on the bay was too windy,” Rueca said. “The seas were big.”
After his arrest, Pennington was taken to shore and released. His boat was towed and tied up but not impounded.
“There is not much that can keep him from getting back on that vessel,” Rueca said.
On Sunday morning, Pennington was spotted by Hechanova in the Starbucks near Aquatic Park, his usual hangout.
Pennington first dropped anchor in Aquatic Park on Sept. 26, according to court records, and has been in and out of the cove ever since, for a total of at least 130 nights. Regulations allow a craft to anchor in the cove for a maximum of five nights in a row and 30 nights a year, with a permit.
Pennington has never had a permit, according to court charges. His boat has broken free of its anchor or mooring before, once striking the historic C.A. Thayer schooner and once hitting Municipal Pier. Police had to board his boat in February and found it lacking registration and Pennington “verbally combative,” according to the report.
Buckets of human waste were found on board, which would seem to bolster the claims of swimmers that Pennington is dumping it overboard and presenting a health hazard.
In an effort to get him to leave the cove, park police are seeking a stay-away order that would give Pennington 72 hours to remove his boat from Aquatic Park or have it impounded. The case, in U.S. District Court, is scheduled for trial April 26.
Until then, “we are waiting for the next squatting or invasion to happen,” Hechanova said. “It is almost like a thousand cuts. I don’t know what the next one will be.”
“There is not much that can keep him from getting back on that vessel.”
Robert Rueca, police spokesman