The government spent £41,591,22 re-floating, cleaning up and disposing of a boat which sunk in Peel Harbour.

Details of the cost of recovering the boat, which sank in 2021, have been revealed after a Freedom of Information request.

The former fishing boat, Claire Anne, sank on May 25 2021 and began leaking diesel while harbour staff tended to the pumps, deployed a counter pollution boom around the vessel and cordoned off the area.

That immediate response led to costs of £2,380 to deal with the pollution and a further £353.52 for booms and absorbents.

A diving team cost a further £1,086 and the fire service cost £3,052.

Having deteriorated further, the boat was eventually disposed of, these works included £10,000 for the wheelhouse to be stripped and for the engine to be removed, £3,500 in charges to dispose of the timber and £2,500 breaking charges for her keel.

A previous Freedom of Information request detailed an email sent from the harbour master to the person who had owned the boat in February 2021. In that email, Mark Kenyon said a similar disposal operation on another boat had cost over £20,000 and the cost had been ‘passed onto the owner’. However, there is no indication if this had occurred in this instance.