Powell River could be looking out at a few less hulks in the future. Fred Chinn, Powell River operations manager for Catalyst Paper Corporation, told members attending a community stakeholders meeting Wednesday, October 7 that the company was considering reducing the number of concrete boats that make up the company’s floating breakwater.
“We have these floating hulks,” said Chinn. “They’re actually concrete ships, even though they look like they’re made of steel. They’re the last floating concrete ships in the world.”
Most of the hulks were built during World War II and one for World War I, he said.
Chinn added that the mill and hulks, particularly the one on the end near the log sort, had a captive audience during the heavy weather on the last weekend of August.
A large group of spectators gathered at the Marine Avenue lookout to watch the storm take its fury out on ships, he said.
“We got that weird southerly and it slammed the side of that boat and put holes in it,” said Chinn. “The waves were so strong they punched through the concrete.”
The ships are all anchored to the bottom of the strait with heavy chains attached to large concrete blocks, but that does not prevent damage.
“It took on a lot of water, but we were able to pump it out and we’re doing some repairs to the side now,” he said, “but you can tell the boats are aging and we don’t need as many as we have.”
Currently, 10 hulks make up the breakwater, but the Powell River mill without the sawmills that lined the shore is about half the size as it used to be, said Chinn.
“There’s about four boats we don’t need,” he added, “and we’re paying a lot of money every year, about a quarter of a million dollars to keep them afloat.”
He added that Catalyst is considering finding a location around Powell River to sink the concrete ships to create artificial reefs. Chinn said that similar ships have been effective in reef creation in the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea.
“We’re wondering if some of these would make an interesting dive site around town and bring more tourism to the town,”said Chinn. “It’s an idea at this point.”
