DOCKED IN ICE

Abandoned vessel frozen solid near Fairport Harbor

A red, 20-foot sailboat left in the water at Riverbend Marina in Fairport Harbor Village after the Grand River froze solid in December has made its way out to Lake Erie, thanks to the thawing and subsequent breakup of the ice earlier in January.

Painesville Township angler Frank Zalek said he watched the vessel, named St. Nicholas, make its way down river and toward Lake Erie on Jan. 12, following a couple of warm days as massive chunks of river ice broke the craft free of its mooring.

“It was just tied up to the wall and the ice started moving and carried it away,” he said in a Jan. 16 phone interview. “It was really something else, I tell ya.”

Zalek said he fishes for steelhead frequently in that area along the Grand River and has a boat of his own at Riverbend. He said he’d been keeping an eye on the vessel with interest. A representative from Riverbend Marina, who isn’t permitted to identify the owner of the vessel, said the marina tried to contact the owner to no avail.

Also, she said the marina does not have the necessary

equipment on hand to lift boats out of the water, nor are they allowed to do so without owners’ permission.

As of Jan. 16, the St. Nicholas sat frozen in its tracks about 100 feet off what locals call Coast Guard Beach,

just north of the U.S. Coast Guard station at the mouth of the Grand River.

An official at Coast Guard Station Fairport said authorities don’t have any immediate plans for her and that it’s up to the owner to make any kind of recovery once the lake thaws out.

“Obviously, there are no injuries involved,” said USCG BM2 Scott Sjostrom. “Being frozen in the water like it is, it doesn’t pose any

hazard to navigation right now because there aren’t any boats coming in.”

So, he said, the plan is to wait until the ice melts and “see what happens from there, if it hasn’t sunk by then.”

Sjostrom said the Coast Guard wouldn’t issue any kind of citation, fines or anything like that in this situation.

“Hopefully, they have insurance,” he said.

JONATHAN TRESSLER — THE NEWS-HERALD A 20-foot sloop named St. Nicholas that broke free of its mooring at Riverbend Marina in Fairport Harbor Village during a thaw earlier in January sits frozen in the icy waters of lake Erie between the mouth of the Grand River and the Fairport Harbor...

JONATHAN TRESSLER — THE NEWS-HERALD A red, single-masted sailboat named St. Nicholas sits frozen in Lake Erie with the Fairport Harbor Village hillside in the background in this Jan. 15 photo.