Hedland boat marooned, vandalised

The owner-operator of Sunset Sea Marine, whose charter boat became marooned on the Spoilbank, wants to thank community members for their offers of assistance.

Mick Tomkins discovered his boat had run aground on January 20, following a strong storm, during which the vessel was ripped from its moorings.

"The phone calls I had over the first few days from tug masters, through to gardeners, from all sorts of people - this would have to be the friendliest town I have ever lived in my life," he said.

"She blew ashore in 35 to 40 knot winds, and then we attempted to refloat the vessel on the high tide, but the wind picked up in the afternoon from the west and forced her further up the beach and swamped the front of the boat."

To add insult to injury, Mr Tomkins' boat was set upon by vandals as it lay stranded on the Spoilbank.

It was defaced with graffiti and its life raft was inflated.

"In the meantime when you are feeling pretty down because this has happened to your business and your boat, artists came along and graffitied the whole boat and did about $40,000 worth of damage," he said.

"They've pulled the zip cord (of the life raft) and that would have blown off the roof because it was huge, and then they've proceeded to tow it along the beach for a joyride during the night."

Mr Tomkins, a Port Hedland resident of eight years, said he would have to assess the viability of his business once he determined whether the vessel was repairable.

"We'd like to get back up and running again, but we've taken a very big hit," he said.

Port Hedland Sergeant Jason Gentili said police had no leads on the graffiti, but were looking into the incident.