Ike battered boats at wharf

By Aaron Beswick

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

The mind of a man with his boat tied to the wharf is never fully at rest.

There’s always lines to be checked and shifting winds to be watched.

Fishermen with their boats tied up in New Ferolle, N.L. didn’t sleep much the night the remnants of Hurricane Ike were bringing 40 knots of southwesterly winds. The majority of the large speedboats were tied three or four deep to a floating dock on the wharf’s harbour side (western).

But a lack of space forced eight boats to the unprotected northeastern side.

When area fishermen heard the winds shift unexpectedly northeast while laying in bed in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, they rushed from as far as Anchor Point to save their boats. “When you come out at 4 a.m. and your boat is sunk to the wharf, it’s not such a good feeling,” said Bob Rumbolt of Castor River South.

When the wind shifted northeasterly, larger swells were carried broadside onto the speedboats tied to the wharf, pounding and flooding them. Three of the boats were at the bottom when fishermen began their frantic salvage effort. Despite the wind and waves, they managed to shift the five floating boats around to a more protected spot. The three remaining had to be hauled ashore.

Mike Rumbolt estimates he could be out $15,000-$20,000.

Submerged in the saltwater was an outboard motor, hauler motor, hydraulics, fish sounder, Global Positioning System and a VHF radio. “What will make the big difference is whether I can get my outboard going again – that’s $10,000 right there.”

Some 30 fishing boats land at the New Ferolle wharf during the fall cod fishery. The congestion coincides with strengthening fall winds. Small boat fishermen at the wharf were unanimous in their opinion that a second floating dock and a slipway are needed to prevent a repetition of what happened.

But they’re unlikely to get either.

The St. Barbe Development Association, which applied for funding to have the existing wharf, floating dock and staging area built in 2003, can barely afford to maintain the facility on what it receives in user fees. “The wharf facilities are very exposed to the elements, so we have a lot of ongoing maintenance costs,” said association executive manager Gloria Toope.

Any expansion of the facility would have to be governmentfunded.

As well, more wharf would bring more maintenance costs. “We would only look at applying for an expansion if the need is really, really urgent,” said Toope, admitting that three boats sinking at the wharf is “urgent.”

The St. Barbe Development Association, she explained, would be inclined to transfer ownership of the wharf over to Small Craft Harbours, the federal body which administers many small fishing wharves.

However, Small Craft Harbours has been offloading wharves in recent years to harbour authorities and hasn’t shown any interest in taking on new responsibilities.

All this comes as little solace to Mike Rumbolt, Bob Rumbolt and Ernest Genge, who are tallying their losses.

Asked whether the storm will sink his enterprise in an already marginal fishery, Mike Rumbolt replied, “Oh, I’ll be on the water again next year. That’s it, you just got to grin and bear it.” (Aaron Beswick is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Northern Pen, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)