MILWAUKEE — An abandoned boat that has been stuck in the sand on Milwaukee’s lakefront for more than six months remains glued to the shore.
But once it’s finally removed, where will the boat’s final resting place ultimately be?
Owner of Jerry’s Silo Marina Jerry Guyer told WTMJ Thursday he had been approached by the Milwaukee Art Museum about acquiring the boat after its removal is complete. “They approached us that this might be enough of an icon that they would be interested in helping us get it over to them when we’re done.” Guyer told Wisconsin’s Morning News.
In a statement, the art museum refuted Guyer’s claim. “I can say officially say that the Museum did not inquire about acquiring portions of the boat for the collection,” said museum Director of Marketing and Communications Cortney Heimerl.
READ MORE: Final push to remove stranded boat underway
On Wednesday, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson announced an anonymous donor had come forward offering to pay for the cost of the boat’s removal.
“We were happy to work with Jerry and connect some of those dots in order to cover the cost to remove, this boat, which I think is a really good thing, not just for the county, but for the city, which means that no taxpayers in the city or the county will then have to bear the brunt and the cost of removing it,” the Mayor said.
Mayor Johnson and Guyer have not commented on who the anonymous donor might be.
The boat is a 33-foot Chris-Craft Roamer, owned by Mississippi residents Richard and Sherry Wells. They purchased it from Manitowoc in October and planned to sail it back to Mississippi, but beached it October 13th after getting stuck in a storm.
The Wells stayed in Milwaukee for a few days to try removing it, then went radio-silent.
The boat has since become a canvass for vandalism, appeared in music videos and become a Google Maps entry called “The Minnow.”
The boat has become something of a local legend, with dozens of onlookers watching the removal process Wednesday:
Guyer tells WTMJ the weight of the boat when combined with the lingering sand and water inside is likely more than 20,000 pounds, which complicates efforts to remove the vessel.
“Now we have to create a lake around it that’s deep enough to float it, and then we have to put positive flotation around it. We’re thinking this morning of putting three pontoon boats or some kind of barges, something along its sides and lash it down so that they will help to take some of that weight to make the boat float safe enough to tow it out of there,” says Guyer.
He adds in his 45 years of salvage operations, this has been the most difficult task for his crew.
“This has gotta be the number one. We hope we’d never have one worse than this.”
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