Jyväskylä moves to remove rusty 20-metre vessel from beach

Jyväskylä plans to use enforcement measures to remove a nearly 20-metre pleasure vessel from Muuratsalo swimming beach, Yle reports. The city has received weekly complaints that the rusty vessel disrupts use of the beach and spoils the scenery.

The vessel has been tied to trees with ropes and left at the beach throughout the summer. There is no boat dock at the shoreline, and the city says the vessel is attached to land it owns. In the city’s view, it is no longer temporarily moored but has been left there permanently.

The city has asked the owner to provide an explanation but has not received a response. The owner will first be asked to move the vessel by a specified deadline. If that does not happen, the city may move it and tow it elsewhere, although it does not have a suitable location where a 20-metre vessel could be refurbished.

“The last resort is for the city to move the vessel and tow it somewhere else. The big question, of course, is where,” said Petteri Ahonen, Jyväskylä’s head of environmental protection.

The owner, Esa Niemitalo, says the vessel, M/S Päivänsäde, is at Muuratsalo because it is being renovated. He said the cabin section has been fitted out this summer and that the vessel, which is more than 40 years old, still needs extensive work.

Niemitalo said the vessel’s original chief engineer lives nearby and is helping with the renovation. He has therefore invoked a boat-berth right, a right connected to old land ownership arrangements that allows property owners in an area to keep boats in a shared location.

Ahonen said the city had investigated possible boat-berth rights concerning the Muuratsalo shoreline but had found none. The city also says that no active renovation work is visible and that the vessel’s exterior would need treatment, which cannot be carried out while it is in the water.

Niemitalo said the vessel once served as the summer home of his family of seven and has also operated as a restaurant ship under an outside operator. He previously kept it in Korpilahti and later in Säynätsalo, but had to move it because the city plans to demolish the old boat docks.

He plans to keep the vessel at Muuratsalo until next spring and then find it a new private berth. The vessel is currently for sale on the Nettivene website.

Ahonen said a sale would be the best solution because a buyer could take the vessel elsewhere for renovation without the need for enforcement measures. The city says the vessel contains little fuel or oil and does not currently pose a risk of environmental damage.