A powerboat rests partially sunk on the shore of Beer Can Island on the St. Croix River near Hudson, Wis., on Thursday. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A large powerboat that’s been beached for months on Beer Can Island in the St. Croix River has drawn complaints, social media infamy and enough water that its rear is sinking.

It’s not clear when it will be removed, or by whom, even as the Hudson (Wis.) City Council last month responded by writing a new ordinance calling for fines of up to $1,000 per day for abandoned watercraft.

The skipper who beached the vessel earlier this summer said he’s been hounded by his Afton neighbors over it, enough that he plans to move out of state.

Grayson Talbot McNew, the boat’s listed owner, said the situation is “a nightmare for me. My boat sank, and I’ve had people prying into my personal life. I’ve had death threats.”

McNew said this week that he recently sold the 54-foot Bluewater Intercoastal to someone; he declined to say who or what plans have been made for the boat’s removal. McNew, who twice has run for the Minnesota House of Representatives, said it was his first “and last” boat. For now, it sits within view of downtown Hudson — an eyesore, but not an uncommon one.

This isn’t the first time Hudson officials have found themselves looking for an owner of a derelict boat left on Beer Can Island. It’s a popular spot in the summer for boaters to beach their watercraft and camp overnight; it’s not uncommon to see a boat at the same spot for days or even weeks. And it seems each fall there’s at least one boat that never leaves.

Derelict boat list

Three of those boats are now stored at Hudson’s city impound lot at 1421 2nd St., Hudson Police Chief Geoff Willems said:

A 1987 Blue Celebrity motorboat that’s the subject of an ownership dispute ended up at the impound lot in September. According to a police report: The registered owner said he sold it; the person he sold it to said he discovered that the boat “had issues” while giving it a test drive and that he beached it and doesn’t have a way to remove it. The boat’s trailer, meanwhile, was reported stolen. The police asked the Hudson marina on Sept. 24 to pick up the boat and take it to the city impound lot.
A 1987 Carver left on Beer Can Island in 2023 was removed by the Hudson marina on Dec. 7, 2023. According to a police report, boat owner Davis A. Kleven went to the marina to tell staff that insurance would total the boat. Kleven was then taken into custody by Hudson police on an unrelated warrant. The boat was moved to the Hudson impound lot in September. Kleven, who has addresses in Forest Lake and Tempe, Ariz., could not be reached for comment.
A 1981 Holiday Houseboat was found abandoned on Beer Can Island on Nov. 17, 2022. It was towed to the marina and sent to the city impound lot. A call to registered owner Terry W. Rubbert on Friday was not returned.

McNew’s Bluewater Intercoastal could become the newest boat to land in the city impound lot unless he or the person he alleges he sold it to removes it first. McNew has until Monday to get it off the island or face fines, Willems said.

If the impounded boats go unclaimed, the city will try to auction them off or donate them, Willems said. For Hudson City Administrator Brentt Michalek, the recurring nuisance of abandoned boats on Beer Can Island shouldn’t be a city issue in the first place.

“Those islands are not technically owned by the city,” he said, and yet it’s become a city issue to remove them before they become navigational hazards, or cause further environmental damage by leaking oil, fuel, coolants or other hazardous liquids into the river.

Michalek said he wants the Department of Natural Resources to remove the boats as they become environmental hazards.

Efforts to reach both the Minnesota and Wisconsin DNR on Friday were not immediately successful.

Hudson cracks down

The City Council on Sept. 16 passed a new city ordinance that adds boats to the abandoned vehicles ordinance. The new rule calls for fines of $100 to $1,000 per day for abandoned boats, along with a jail sentence of up to 30 days.

Michalek said the ordinance is the city’s best effort. The city estimated it would cost $6,000 to remove McNew’s boat, a bill that includes floating a barge with a crane onto the river, lifting the boat, draining it and then fixing the leak that lead to its partial sinking.

“It’s not a cheap endeavor,” Michalek said.

“When you buy a big boat like that, you have to expect that you have to keep maintaining it,” he said, adding up the costs of fuel, insurance, finding a place to dock it, and a way to haul it around. “You’re not hauling it out with your small truck,” he said.

“I think people get into these things without thinking it quite through.”