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Tuesday, September 1, 2015
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Ladysmith Marine Services mops up surface oil inside a containment boom surrounding the charred remains of the Dream Chaser, which burned to the waterline, then sank on the beach at Slack Point, next to the Dogpatch area of Ladysmith Harbour. The day before another boat, loaded with some of the items stacked a few paces up the beach, drifted away from where it was tied up and eventually sank just east of Slack Point. It’s owner claims the boat was deliberately cut loose. Craig Spence
More Dogpatch boats sunk, torched RCMP concerned about ‘vigilantism’ as tensions mount in liveaboard area Craig Spence
Dan Casler, who walks his dog on Slack Point just about every day, witnessed the Tuesday morning altercation between the boat owners, and said he thought Accusations and threats are flying after two boats were sunk things were going to come to blows then. “I’ve been going down there every day for five years in the Dogpatch area of Ladysmith Harbour in two nights. Sometime Monday night a boat sank and ended up off and watching the situation deteriorate,” Casler said. But the eastern tip of Slack Point. A man believed to be its he’s never seen things escalate like they have recentowner was seen Tuesday morning at about 11:30 a.m. ly. “I think the whole situation down there needs to be engaged in a heated shore to ship verbal exchange with cleaned up,” he said. Just over a month ago another vessel burned and people aboard the Dream Chaser, a 37 ft. Bayliner resank in Dogpatch. A houseboat, tied up next to the portedly owned by Nathan Churchill of Ladysmith. BC Supreme Court documents from Dec. 16, 2014, show Viki Lyne II went up in flames and sank July 18, the that the Dream Chaser was sold to Nathan Churchill in Au- night before a protest against the Viki Lyne II’s presgust, 2010 by Nanaimo chapter members of the Hells Angels. ence in Ladysmith Harbour was held. Police said that The man on shore Tuesday was accusing the people on incident was suspicious. “The level of illegal activity has certainly ramped up in the Dream Chaser of being involved with setting his boat the last little while,” Rod Smith, executive director of the adrift, then sinking it. On Tuesday night the Dream Chaser burned to the Ladysmith Maritime Society said. He’s concerned there’s waterline, coming to rest on the north beach of Slack going to be a major fire in the harbour, an environmental Point, where it sat Wednesday afternoon, with a boom disaster or that someone is going to be seriously injured. Cpl. Rick Fraser with Ladysmith RCMP said that due to surrounding it, a gooey mess of debris-filled, oily water inside, and a sheen of diesel fuel clearly visible on the the extent of the damage it will be difficult to determine exactly what happened with the Dream Chaser. water outside the boom. “Unfortunately it’s not going to be easy to tell whether One of the people who had been aboard the Dream Chaser during the previous day’s exchange arrived in a that was an accident or not,” he said. He added that the RCMP is concerned about ‘vigilanskiff to inspect the carnage, and said the hostilities were not over – that there would be retribution for the burn- tism’ that might be going on in the Dogpatch, but that there is not enough evidence to take action. ing and sinking of the Dream Chaser. the chronicle
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