Owner of boat frozen into St. John River not concerned, says boat will survive the ice

Jordan Tatton says his sailboat was definitely not abandoned to freeze into the ice on the St. John River near Browns Flat. 

He said he anchored the 13-metre boat where it is to be closer to his three children, who live in nearby Beulah Camp with his estranged wife. 

Residents in the area have expressed concern about the boat stuck in the ice. Some fear environmental damage if the boat should sink and spill fuel, and others worry it’s a hazard to snowmobilers who use the river to get around.

Although wintering in the ice wasn’t Tatton’s original plan, he isn’t worried in the least about his boat being frozen in place. 

As a Wesleyan “preacher’s kid,”  he said, he practically grew up at Beulah Camp on the banks of the St. John River. As a result, he said, he’s well aware of the power of spring ice flows — and he’s confident his boat won’t fall victim to it. 

“I’m not concerned about that,” Tatton, 39, said in an interview. 

“It is a well-built vessel. As well, it has equipment on board to prevent the buildup of ice on the actual hull and mitigate damage from ice flows.”

He said the boat is equipped with two different systems to prevent ice from building up around it. One is a bubbler system that uses forced air to keep the ice from forming, and the other is a propeller system that keeps water moving around the boat. 

But he hasn’t turned either of them on yet. 

Tatton said he hasn’t been concerned enough about the ice to activate the anti-ice systems. He believes his hull — with its wooden frame, concrete and fibreglass construction — is strong enough to withstand the ice. 

“Yeah, the ice is going to scratch my paint, but it’s not going to put a hole in the bottom,” he said.

Dreamed of living on a boat

Tatton said he bought the boat in August. 

“I’ve been dreaming of a live-aboard sailboat for a couple of decades now.” 

He calls it his “floating home” and spent the first month travelling the St. John River system, including time spent in Belleisle Bay and Meenan’s Cove on the Kennebecasis River, before anchoring near Beulah Camp, which is operated by the Wesleyan Church and where Tatton and his wife have a long-term lease on a plot of land. 

The idea was for him to anchor offshore to be close to his children.

Then, while the river system was still open, he was going to sail the boat to Grand Manan, where he owns property, and anchor there for the winter.

But there were issues with the municipality. 

Since he had no permanent residence — only a boat and a motor home — he had been taking stuff to Grand Manan to store on the property.

He said local government officials removed and destroyed his possessions, claiming they were unsightly, so he abandoned his plan to overwinter on the island. 

Grand Manan Mayor Bonnie Morse confirmed the municipal government removed a number of items from the property on the southern tip of the island. 

She said officials went through the proper procedure under the village’s Unsightly Premises Bylaw, including notification, and eventually took steps to “remediate the property.” 

“So what I’ve got left is my home floating on the river and a now-empty property on Grand Manan,” said Tatton.

Officials checked

The Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada were both aware of Tatton and his boat.

Tatton shared an email from an official with Transport Canada, who wrote that while leaving his boat in the river over the winter might not be prudent, he’s done nothing wrong. 

In an emailed statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for the coast guard said they visited the boat last month, spoke with the owner and concluded “there is no risk of pollution or hazard to the marine environment at that time, and the case will be transferred over to Transport Canada.”

A spokesperson for Transport Canada said the sailboat “has been deemed to be neither dilapidated nor abandoned.”

Charlotte County boat builder Harry Bryan doesn’t advise people to leave their sailboats to freeze in the ice over winter, but said the boat could very well survive without damage.

Much depends on the construction of the boat, said Bryan, who’s been building boats in Letete since the 1970s. 

It also heavily depends on the weather. So far, he said, it’s been a pretty mild winter.

“It might survive quite well,” said Bryan. 

Come spring, however, “the movement of the current or wind moving the ice as a flow frozen around it would surely break his mooring free, but it may not damage the boat at all.”

Either way, Tatton is confident that he’ll sail off unscathed come spring. 

In the meantime, Tatton plans to spend most of the winter on the boat. He said it’s an awkward time to get to the boat right now — while the ice prevents him from using his inflatable dinghy to reach Not a Starship, it’s not thick enough to walk on. 

Once he’s back on the boat, he plans to make the most of it — ice fishing, watching the stars, entertaining his children, and enjoying the on-deck hot tub he recently heated to above 40 C. 

The boat is equipped with a diesel furnace for heating and solar panels. Tatton said it’s very cozy — even in the winter.