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Artist uses beached sailboat in St. Pete to spread message of 'hope' after hurricanes

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Updated  January 8, 2025 9:27am EST
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

Artist uses derelict boat as canvas

Kailey Tracy reports.

The Brief

    • A beached sailboat in St. Pete's North Shore Park is one of dozens deemed derelict after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
    • A street artist visiting family in December spray-painted "hope" on the side.
    • St. Pete police said it could cost thousands to remove just one of the 16 boats that still need to be removed.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A beached sailboat in St. Petersburg’s North Shore Park serves as a reminder of the storm that brought it there.

"It's almost like symbolic," artist Jennifer Kosharek said. "A lot of us have gone through a lot of trials in the last even five years, Covid through now, the hurricanes, all sorts of things happening across the country, politics, everything all together. So, you know, people have a lot of feelings."

Kosharek, a St. Pete street artist, wants to change the sailboat’s symbolism, though. She recently moved to Alaska, but was back visiting family in December and spray-painted one word, "hope," and her rag doll character, "Gretchen," on the vessel in December. 

READ: Final pass for storm debris collection begins Friday in St. Pete. Here's what to know

Both are also spray-painted across the city, including on another nearby derelict boat. 

"I feel like I do it, because I like to put a positive message out to the universe," she said. 

Kosharek said when she tagged the boat, as she calls it, other messages were already on it, like "Capsize, become art" on the front. 

"I think it’s nice if they can look at something and say, ‘look at this boat. It's destroyed. But you know what? It still has something to give, right?’ … It's half buried under sand. It's probably not, it will never be usable again as a boat. But, you know, until the city or whoever is in charge of cleaning that up, might as well make it a piece of art, you know, for people to come take a selfie with," she said.

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St. Pete police said the boat has been there since Hurricane Helene. 

"Normally for a derelict vessel, it takes 21 days for the owner to take action," Lieutenant Jason Levey of SPPD’s Traffic and Marine Division said. "When you have a named storm, you notify the owner within seven days, and if they don't take care of it within seven days, then there's another 45 days they can take care of it. In this instance, they [officers] could not identify the owner."

It’s one of 16 derelict vessels the city has to remove from the storms. 

"There are numerous. I can't even count how many were relocated back to the owners for my officers going out doing the legwork, finding where these vessels, boats, jet skis, anything that was on the waterway that was could have been miles down the road, blocks down the road, where they took the time to locate the owner," Lt. Levey said.

He said each removal could cost thousands, especially if the boat needs to be towed.

READ: Private vs. county appraisals: Why there’s a drastic difference in storm damage property valuations

"In this particular incident, the boat doesn't need to be towed, because it's beached, but the equipment to destroy it and remove it to the facility is already being occupied from debris that was collected on the streets from Helene and Milton. So, that was the first priority. Now, we're getting to the secondary and third options," Lt. Levey said.

"This was an extraordinary situation. So, we're going to try to find an extraordinary resolution to it, so we can make everybody happy," he said.

Lt. Levey said he just had a conversation with the city’s park and stormwater division on ways to expedite the removal process for all the derelict boats on Tuesday. Until it's removed, the boat in North Shore Park will sit, spreading hope.

"I don't condone graffiti or ruining somebody’s property. So, I’d like to say that I don't believe in, you know, painting over somebody else's mural or destroying things. But, you know, clearly this is an item that is set for destruction. I'm not doing any harm to the item. So, hopefully I'm adding value and not taking away," Kosharek said.

He urges anyone on the water to be careful of derelict boats, especially ones that are submerged that you can’t see.

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