JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Tug boats came to Jacksonville Beach on Sunday morning to offer help to a 40-foot boat that's been stranded in the surf for a week after an engine failure. Unfortunately plans to get the boat back in the water didn’t pan out.
Every morning a crowd forms as curious spectators come to see if the sailboat boat, and the owner who lives on it, are still there.
“It’s sad," one onlooker said Sunday morning. "You never want a boat to look like that. We all come down here, talk to him, help him out, bring him stuff, whatever we can do.”
Moving the 35,000-pound vessel is no easy task.
“If we connected right now we would damage their boat and possibly endanger them of becoming another rescue," Luke Rehberg, the boat owner, said about a rescue attempt Sunday morning.
For the last week, Rehberg's home - the boat - has been stuck in the surf
“There is definitely prop damage, damage to the drive shaft, as well as the rudder, and the stag on the mast are taking a beating from side to side so hard," Rehberg said.
Rehberg says during a brief trip to a nearby hotel, thieves stole nearly $800 in equipment from the boat.
“The risk of further theft and damage is constant. I’ve been trying to maintain a 24-hour visual, but as you can expect, 24 hours a day is a hard routine to keep up, it’s almost impossible," Rehberg said.
And now, he’s been hit with this notice from Jax beach officials, giving him 3 weeks to move.
"That’s the notice, that they’ve given me until they will remove it, at which point I will not have a boat and I will still owe $15,000 to Jacksonville," Rehberg said.
Rehberg says he needs $12,000 to pay for an industrial-grade tug boat that can move his vessel. Until then, he’s trying to keep his spirits up.
"I appreciate the good will and support and I’ll do my best to get this boat off your beach, but right now, doing what I can," Rehberg said.
Rehberg's plan is to get another crew out here Wednesday that could get the boat back into the water, but he says it depends on tide conditions and how far deep his boat is in the sand.