12 meter long pilot boat dumped on the recycling - owner refuses to move it

It was at the end of 2020 that the pilot boat MS Lion began to take in water where it was in Mönsterås harbor.

The rescue service made several attempts to save the boat;

with the help of bilge pumps, the boat was emptied of water, and divers were also hired to save the boat from sinking.

But in the end, the situation was considered unsustainable and the municipality chose to transport the boat to the nearby waste facility Mörkeskog, where it has now stood for almost a year.

- We want to get rid of this, says Ronnie Björkström, VA cleaning manager at Mönsterås municipality.

Conflict over ownership

The municipality believes that it has identified the owner of the boat: An elderly man who leased the place in the harbor where the boat was for many years.

It is this person who is considered to be liable for payment to the municipality's invoice for the rescue operation - an invoice that lands at close to SEK 150,000.

But the alleged owner refuses.

SVT has been in contact with the owner, who does not want to participate with name and picture, but tells SVT that he has not received the documentation that would make him the owner from the previous owner.

He therefore considers that he bears no responsibility for the boat.

Refuses to pay

He also refuses to pay the costs because he believes that the cost has become unreasonably high, and that the boat could have been salvaged to a shipyard nearby for a fraction of the price.

- It is not money that the municipality wants to spend to take care of someone else's boat, says Ronnie Björkström.

- Now Kronofoden will probably help us try to get him to take his responsibility.

See the dumped boat in the video above!