Beached boat saga sails on as treasure hunter aborts rescue mission

The Alabama treasure hunter who bought a motor yacht marooned on a St. Croix River island in Hudson, Wis., has called it quits.

Bill Warren said he couldn’t raise the money necessary to refloat the vessel, which has been beached for months on Beer Can Island, and has backed out of the deal, claiming that the bill of sale he signed for the 1954 Bluewater Intercoastal named Sweet Destiny was invalid because he never actually paid the $250 sale price.

“I’m going back to Ukraine,” said Warren, who has lived in the war-torn country on and off for several years.

Hudson city administrator Brentt Michalek said officials there agree that Warren is not the owner and plan to resume sending notices and fines to Grayson McNew, the Afton man who beached the boat this summer. Something in the hull failed and the boat partially sank soon after.

McNew was already facing several thousand dollars of fines after the city began issuing daily violations in late October under a new ordinance meant to keep boat owners from abandoning their watercraft on city property. After McNew and Warren signed the bill of sale, city officials stopped issuing fines and expected Warren would coordinate the boat’s removal. McNew was not immediately available Thursday for comment.

The boat, with its aft section submerged in the St. Croix River, can be seen from a Minnesota public beach directly across from downtown Hudson. Boaters noticed it after it partially sank in late summer, and first began talking about it on social media, where it’s become a cautionary tale on the perils of boat ownership.

It’s hardly the first time Hudson has had a problem boat: the city has three abandoned vessels in the impound lot, each with its own tale. The City Council took action in September as it became clear that Sweet Destiny was stuck, passing an ordinance that calls for daily fines as high as $1,400 for leaving watercraft on the river in Hudson.

The city estimated it could cost $6,000 to remove the boat. Warren said he had a bid from a local company to lift the boat for $4,000 but that he wasn’t able to raise the money.

Warren said his plan was to float Sweet Destiny and coax it down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, where he planned to dive for buried treasure at a wreck site that he’s researched. He once ran a company that dove on wrecks, but Warren said this week that he no longer has the ability to raise the necessary capital for the ventures.

“I was fine and then my wife and I divorced, and now I’m down to $263,” he said in an interview. He plans to sell his underwater metal detector and diving gear as he pares down his belongings, he added. “I’m just done with the underwater diving business.”