32-ton yard ornament removed

CLEAR LAKE SHORES — A Florida crane company rid Paul and Linda Merryman of their 32-ton yard ornament Friday, gently returning the 55-foot yacht, Narcosis, to the water after Hurricane Ike wedged it between two homes.

Beyel Brothers of Cocoa, Fla., lifted the fully intact vessel with a 230-ton crane that was perched atop a barge. The 60,000-pound gross-weight bridge into Clear Lake Shores and city ordinances called for the measure.

The couple evacuated north before Ike’s storm surge inundated their island city almost a month ago. Paul Merryman returned Sept. 13 to survey the damage, but rising water at FM 2094 blocked his path.

“I swam and walked through water that was 5 feet deep. I had to see this. It’s the only home I’ve got,” Paul Merryman said.

What Merryman found adorning his yard was unbelievable. Ike’s storm surge moved the Narcosis from a nearby marina, where it was under repair for interior fire damage.

“When I came around the corner and saw this, I was astonished,” Merryman said.

The couple’s home sustained only stress fractures to its brick façade and a broken balcony — cosmetic complications — the Merrymans said. A structural engineer pronounced their home safe and sound. Merryman’s neighbors, Frank Sager and his wife Valerie Kalupa, said their home also had minor damage from the yacht’s grounding.

Richard Spurlock, director of marine operations for Beyle Brothers, said the company lifted the boat’s stern with a nylon strap to keep if off the ground and then used air-inflated Kevlar roller pads to bring the vessel closer to the barge, where the 110-foot crane could safely return it to the shallow water.

The job started at 10 a.m., and by 3 p.m., the Narcosis was gently placed in the Clear Lake shallows as the company prepared to tow the yacht to the marina from where it came.

The yacht raising drew about 80 onlookers who for weeks wondered how Bernad Gibbs of Lake Charles, La., would reclaim the vessel.

Gibbs said he found the Narcosis grounded while searching an Internet site.

“We had looked at helicopter rides and video shot on YouTube, but when we saw the photo of the boat, it was perfect,” Gibbs said of the hunt. “There it was, Narcosis (written) across the back.”

Neither Beyel Brothers nor Boats U.S., the insurance company recovering the vessel, revealed the cost of the operation. Gibbs said he didn’t know either.

The boat’s hull left a roughly 9-inch divot in the yard, and David Wiggin of Boat U.S. said they had to cut down 7 bushes in the process.

“We’ve lived with this for four weeks,” Paul Merryman said. “Every day I think our lives are getting closer to normal, and with this gone, it will at least feel normal.”