October, 2009
Following a recent incident at our marina involving a large sailboat, I sent the following email to our legislators, US Fish & Wildlife and the Corps of Engineers.
From: Jack Hubbard<supervisorhubbard@gmail.com> Date: Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 11:43 AM Subject: sailboat To: , , tombaldini@chartermi.net, , "Berglund, Amy (Levin)" <amy_Berglund@levin.senate.gov> Hello all, We had an incident at the marina with a 62 ft. sailboat that I want to share with you.I was awakened at 2:00 am the morning of Oct. 7 by a 911 operator who informed me there was a vessel in distress at our marina. When I got down to the marina I found the 4 crew members with boat bumpers along with all the mattresses off their boat trying desperately to save their boat from being smashed against the marina wall and sunk. Three other locals and myself got some tires to hand between the marina and boat in order to give a cushion to the rocking boat. This was a very dangerous task as the 70,000 pound boat was smashing violently against the marina, one wrong move and someone was going to lose a leg, arm, finger or get killed. After 2 hours we had managed to secure the boat safely.These people were from the east coast and as they said had no idea our harbor was un-protected in a northeast or east wind and commented that the charts claim our harbor is a harbor of refuge. After looking at a chart before leaving Whitefish Point they estimated they had enough time to reach G.M. Harbor before rough seas would make travel impossible. On their trip the engine developed problems with its water pump so they had to limp in to the harbor to tie up at the marina and fix the problem.You will be hearing from these people as they asked me for contact info on who to talk to about getting this breakwall built. This project needs to get completed. We came very close to having yet another boat sinking in our harbor. The community is in great support of this project and every time we have an incident like this they are very upset that with all the money being spent around the country why can't we get this problem solved. The bottom line is - this is about life and safety. Please lets work together, get these studies done, funding taken care of and get this project completed. Thank You Jack P.S. I will send pictures of this in a separate email. To write or email the US Fish & Wildlife or the USACE encouraging them to complete their bio-studies and keep this project moving forward, please use the following addresses. *US Fish & Wildlife Service Christie Deloria - Sheffield Dept of Interior 3090 Wright St Marquette, MI 49855 Email: *Craig A. Czarnecki Fish & Wildlife Service East Lansing Field Office (ES) 2651 Coolidge Road, Suite 101 East Lansing, MI 48823-6316 Email: *USACE Wayne Schloop P.E. Chief Operations 477 Michigan Ave Detroit, MI 48226 Email:
