A ramshackle sailboat beached not far from where Vancouver's rogue barge is stranded just might be the perfect metaphor for the homelessness issue in this city. Or maybe not.
Resting on its side on the beach only a couple of hundred metres from the buzzworthy barge, the abandoned sailboat has no visible license numbers on its hull, so it's anybody's guess as to where it came from, or to whom it belongs.
Littered around the thing are an old Sea-Doo (which is roped to it), a taken-apart outboard motor, a deflated dinghy, and a front-loading washing machine that a scavenger seemingly hauled out of its hold but abandoned likely because it was too heavy to carry off the beach.
A few looky-loos shuffle around the thing, making comments like "Man, this thing looks like shit," and "What's it even doing here?"
Meanwhile, just up the beach, more than a hundred spectators watch in awe as efforts are immediately made by the private company that owns the multi-million-dollar barge to get it off the beach.
Nobody is really watching as the province officially works on Addressing Abandoned Vessels, Marine Debris and Marine-Sourced Plastics in B.C., and this abandoned vessel hasn't made enough of a ripple to catch the attention of the admins of the Dead Boats Disposal Society Facebook Page.
Ask Vancouver's mayor what he plans to do about the issue of this sailboat and he might tell you that he's going to lobby another level of government for money so that they can come up with some study which will be completed in 2027.
Something needs to be immediately done about this sailboat and the trash surrounding it, and a home should be found for the person who apparently lived in it up until a few days ago.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a barge that I need to go take more photos of.
