photo credit: Robin McNally/GoFundMe
The Chandalar sits beached on Upton Beach in
near the West Marin community of Stinson Beach.

Awakening from a quick nap aboard - might leave you groggy. Realizing your boat's no longer bobbing on the waves, might elicit a cold sweat.

A shipwreck joined the usual body boarders and surfers at Stinson Beach late last month. While the ship’s captain is desperate to get the marooned vessel back out to sea, there's been more than the usual bureaucratic juggling over precisely who might be on the hook for clean up and salvage, says Sam Mondros.

"Stinson gained one new resident for the first time in a decade," Mondros said.

Mondros is a reporter at the small Marin publication: the Point Reyes Light.

"The boat is called the Chandalar, it was built in 1965 and used as a work boat in the Trans Alaska Pipeline system," Mondros said.

Mondros wrote about the beached sailboat for the Light earlier this month after it was mentioned by West Marin Feed, a social media account.

"It's on Upton Beach," Mondros said. "So it's about a 10 minute walk from the entrance of Stinson Beach. I talked to the captain, this guy Logan Walker, who's a union carpenter who was living in San Francisco for the past six months or so. He had come down from Seattle and kind of docked at different harbors in the Bay Area. Sounds like he had kind of a rough go, was robbed at one point; his girlfriend moved back up to Seattle with their cat, Bongo."

"Sunday the 30th, he was headed back up to Seattle, I guess around noon," Mondros said. "The wind was still fair. So he set his autopilot and took a nap. Woke up to the sound of people yelling from outside, the boat, looks outside and the boat is crashing into the sand on Stinson Beach."

Marin County Sheriff Sergeant Adam Schermerhorn said the Department is giving Walker leeway for the time being.

"There's no contamination things that we're concerned of, or any biohazards, there's no fuel on board" Schermerhorn said. "But I know some people, especially that live nearby, are concerned about it or upset that it is still there. But we are trying to do everything that we can to give this gentleman all opportunities to handle this on his own."

Letting the boat’s captain handle salvage operations also helps keep the question of responsibility at bay - a question with a less than certain answer Mondros said.

"Especially in that little zone like the Bolinas Lagoon, for example, which is just a two minute walk on the other side of that Stinson spit, which is managed by 12 different government, local, state agencies that are all monitoring different aspects of the lagoon," Mondros said. "And then this guy washes his ship up on the beach and it's like, you know, everyone throws their hands up. It's like, I don't know exactly how to deal with this."

Mondros said officials from Marin County Parks, Marin County Sheriffs Department, and the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary are likely to step in to handle salvage efforts if needed, and Schermerhorn said no criminal issues have arisen at the moment.

A GofundMe account has been set up to help the Chandalar captain, Logan Walker, get the boat back out to sea, Mondros said; and as of August 15th it has raised $4,700 of its $10,000 goal.

"He had mentioned to me on my way out, he said, if, if I can't raise the money, I'll have to put together a sandcastle building competition to try and raise funds," Mondros said.

Still, Mondros said the Chandalar’s large keel will likely prevent attempts to get the boat back on the water.