A 46-year-old boat run aground in Ferry Reach is set to be "trashed'' if it is not moved soon, officials warned yesterday.

And even if the boat is permanently confiscated and dismantled, its owner would be left with a bill "in the thousands''.

The 52-foot metal and wood vessel with no name has been grounded above the high tide mark of the Kindley Field Road shoreline since a mid-November storm.

But official notices from Marine and Ports Services' authorities to the barge's owner have been ignored, officer Ron Boys told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

He said a notice was sent on December 2 for the owner to appear before the Marine and Ports Services' Director on December 18, but he failed to do so.

"If he had come and explained the situation we would have tried to work with him,'' he said. "But since he's failed to do that we have to assume he no longer wants the boat -- that he's abandoned it.'' Mr. Boys said the next step that had to be taken in accordance with the Wreck Removal Act was for a notice to appear in the Official Gazette giving the owner a final deadline of two weeks to remove the vessel.

"We are in the process of doing that right now,'' he said. "If it's still there after that then the boat is confiscated and we remove it as soon as possible and the owner is sent a bill, so it's in his own best interest to remove it himself now.

"If we remove it I don't imagine we could remove it whole. It would probably be trashed. There's not much on a 46-year-old boat to be saved.'' He said it was difficult to estimate the cost of the operation but he thought it would be "in the thousands''.

"We do not like to spend Government money on removing wrecks that belong to someone and are their responsibility. Why should the Government pay for that?'' He said he understood the owner had made at least one attempt to shift the barge, but it was a complex feat.

"One problem he's got is that it went up in a storm at a very high tide so he needs to have a very high tide to remove it.

"Also because of its position he has to literally drag it across the shoreline to get it back into the water.'' Mr. Boys could not say whether the boat was seaworthy or even whether it would still float.

He said at this point he would prefer not to publicly name the owner.