Hawtree Creek vomits up another boat

 

 

 Queens Chronicle

The fourth of five derelict boats to be removed from the Jamaica Bay area has been drained and floated up closer to the surface, making it almost ready to be dismantled.

For the first time in years, the Hawtree Basin vessel, which has been a real stick in the mud for residents, is upright and on the move instead of lodged on its side, as seen at right while it was being drained.

“We are happy to report that the contractors are hard at work removing the Hawtree Basin vessel, and hope to have it removed within the next week,” said National Park Service spokesperson Dan Kastanis last week.

As of Wednesday, divers were pulling the boat towards the 99th Street side of the canal for the crew to bring equipment and dismantle it. They should have it there by Thursday but are working according to the tide.

The project to remove the five boats started in December but was delayed due to the pandemic.

According to Google Maps, the Hawtree boat, estimated at over 50 feet, has been abandoned for approximately eight years.

After going in to remove the large Hawtree Basin vessel with a crane, the contractor, Custom Marine, discovered that the boat was impaled by a large steel piling.

That allowed water and debris to fill the vessel, which also had mattresses left behind from when it was a functioning passenger boat.

According to the Custom Marine, which is based out of Westchester, the craft weighs 10,000 pounds per 10 feet, making its mass close to 60,000 pounds.

Divers told Roger Gendron, president of the New Hamilton Beach Civic Association, that the rudder was broken off and the engine had rotted out, allowing even more water and debris to get inside. Gendron has been posting photos and updates on the civic’s Facebook page.

 

Exploring Hawtree Creek

Another great photo essay by Nathan Kensinger on Curbed:

Down at the edge of Jamaica Bay, beneath the subway tracks and next to the airport, flows one of the most-seen but least-known creeks in New York City. It meanders past 100-year-old boat clubs and bungalows, travels underneath the AirTrain and the A train, and is the main reason that most of the nearby communities exist.

But to millions of visitors who look out over its waters while on their way to JFK, it has no name. And for many of the residents who live along its shoreline, its path remains a mystery, though its waters flood their streets during nearly every full moon.

This is Hawtree Creek, which passes through a pocket of New York City that feels like it belongs to a different century. Families living near this waterway still take "the boardwalk into town" like their grandparents once did, still keep a boat or two in the dock out back, and still navigate gravel roads through marshlands to get to their homes, which are built on pilings out over the water.

Boats sinking in Hawtree Creek

From the Queens Chronicle:

No chance to look off the port bow for two Howard Beach boats, because they’re slowly sinking into Hawtree Creek.

The 50- and 30-foot boats, both belonging to a Bayview Avenue resident, have slowly been listing into the creek after they lost their sea legs about a week ago. Although still tied to the dock, both are just about halfway underwater.

Both were leaking oil and fuel into the creek, which leads into Jamaica Bay, over the weekend until authorities pumped the fluids out of them, according to members of the Howard Beach Motor Boat Club, located a few yards away from the wreckage.

“But that was after a day of leakage that went unmitigated,” said Mike Raffo, a member of the boat club and a lifelong resident of Howard Beach. “Now there’s a whole canal full of gasoline.”

Oil slicks were visible on the water Tuesday afternoon.

Dan Mundy Jr., a member of the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers, said the fluids in the water present an environmental hazard that should be addressed immediately.

“If you have oil in the boat, you have contaminated water and you need to get the Department of Environmental Conservation out there,” he said.