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Mystery boat removed from Pelham's southern border

BY JOHN CHICK Special to the VOICE A mystery craft that ran aground at Pelham’s southern boundary on the Welland River has been removed, but nobody seems to know the full story behind it.

 

BY JOHN CHICK Special to the VOICE

A mystery craft that ran aground at Pelham’s southern boundary on the Welland River has been removed, but nobody seems to know the full story behind it. A cabin cruiser boat, approximately 10 metres in length, had been beached in the E.C. Brown Conservation Area for at least six months before its removal last Thursday by a Stoney Creek towing company.

Above and below, various views of the wascally Rascal, beached at the E.C. Brown Conservation area over the winter. BOB LOBLAW PHOTOS

A film crew from the Discovery Channel reality TV series “Heavy Rescue 401” shadowed the removal and hoisting of the 6,300-kilogram boat onto a flatbed truck, meaning some of the mystery could be solved on a small screen near you at some point.

The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) said they had been aware of the beached boat for some time, but neither they nor the police had any contact information about who owned the boat — called “Rascal,” with Toronto named as its home port. A visit to Transport Canada’s vessel registry page showed the only match to this was a boat that hasn’t been registered since 1985.

Prior to the removal, Erika Navarro of the NPCA told the Welland Tribune that a mystery man was seen on the boat last fall, but the paper reported that police were able to establish that the individual was not the boat’s owner.

The Voice inspected the craft before its removal, noting that on its aft deck was a solar-trickle charger attached to what looked like a car battery. The NPCA’s Navarro told the Tribune that there were no environmental hazards associated with the boat. She added that the NPCA paid for the removal of the boat, but that they could possibly charge the bill to the owner — if they were ever located.

“This is a first for me,” Metro Towing’s Glen Hobman told the Tribune, adding that the “Heavy Rescue 401” producers shadow his company for the TV program. “They follow us around all year long.”

The show features on-the-scene large-scale towing and heavy vehicle rescue operations, mostly along busy southern Ontario highways.

The good ship was apparently then headed for the scrapyard, leaving more questions than answers to a Rascal of a mystery.