David Cobb, owner of the Chief Skugaid, has been given an extension by the Supreme Court of British Columbia to find a new home for his 93-foot wooden fishing boat.
Cobb was found in contempt of court for failing to comply with a May 8 court order to move his vessel, but at a sentencing hearing on Aug. 1, Justice Victoria Gray granted him a postponement until Aug. 15.
He has until that sentencing hearing to move the 100-year-old vessel from a city waterlot, which is next to the Fraser River Discovery Centre,. Cobb said he intends to ship out, and does not deny he is currently trespassing,
but he says he feels the city and Port Metro Vancouver have taken unnecessary punitive action against him.
"They want to penalize me," he said of the city's perspective of the matter. "It's all punitive. They don't give a shite, as the Irish say, about the heritage of the boat, the fact that it's the oldest workboat in Canada. They don't give a good goddamn."
Cobb said he will most likely look for a new place to moor the Chief Skugaid somewhere outside the Lower Mainland, farther up the Fraser River.
In the meantime, he has been given restricted access to his boat, allowed to go only to adjust the mooring lines four times per day and to feed his two dogs, which are still aboard the vessel.
"The city is convinced that I'm just
having a swell old time there paying nil and enjoying myself, so their application in pleading was to severely curtail my access to the boat," he said.
Council for the city has also asked that Cobb be ordered to pay the city special costs - the city's legal fees - and additional costs of $2,000.
City hall, meanwhile, had no comment on the matter, other than to confirm Cobb is expected to vacate the premises as indicated at the Aug. 1 court hearing.
"We're continuing to pursue action," said Kim Deighton, acting manager of licensing and integrated services for the City of New Westminster. "The process is slow but we're following proper procedure to ensure that the dock is safe and ... he needs to move."
Cobb has owned the Chief Skugaid for the past three years. In June 2011, he was on his way to a shipyard in Queensborough when he found himself stuck on the river. A gravel barge had crashed into the rail bridge leading from the waterfront to Queensborough, preventing him from accessing the shipyard.
It was at that point that he docked on the waterfront near River Market - a spot he says is a "common law tie up area."
As previously reported in The Record, soon after the Chief Skugaid arrived on the waterfront, the property management company looking after the adjacent land asked Cobb to move along. The company stated Cobb's moorage of the boat at the wharf in the foreshore area constituted trespassing.
Lawyers working on behalf of No. 143 Cathedral Ventures Ltd. filed actions in the Supreme Court of B.C. seeking to restrain Cobb from trespassing on the property and the foreshore, to move the vessel from the property and foreshore, and to have the right to tow the vessel elsewhere and recover costs from him.
Court documents filed on behalf of Cathedral Ventures Ltd. state he has received a benefit and has been "enriched" by its use and occupation of the property and the foreshore, whereas the land owner has suffered a "detriment in being deprived of the use of its property and the foreshore" and has not been paid for the boat's use and occupant of the plaintiff's property and foreshore.
In a letter to Cobb, lawyers acting for 143 Cathedral Ventures Ltd. stated their client had never granted permission for moorage on the dock or on the foreshore. The letter also stated the lease of the foreshore doesn't permit overnight vessel moorage, float homes or "live-aboards."
According to the court documents, Cobb originally stated he would moor the vessel at the site for about two weeks until the bridge was repaired and would then proceed to the shipyard, but he remained at the site.
For the past three months he has had the boat tied up 100 yards from the Larco site, in front of the Fraser River Discovery Centre.
Cobb says the Larco tie up is still being used by tugboats and other ships, but he was not allowed to stay because of what he refers to as a "personal vendetta" from within city hall because Cobb doesn't conform with his century-old ship.
Cobb says he's come close to finding a berth that will take him, but without insurance, he can't find a marina to accept him, and without being already in a shipyard, getting insurance is next to impossible.
"No maritime insurer will insure a 100-year-old hull unless it's in an accredited and approved boat yard," he said. "And no accredited yard will let me into their yard without that insurance already in effect. It's maddening."
