[imagesource: East Anglia News Service]

This Noah’s Ark replica is being flooded, and not by stormy waters but rather tons of costs and delays.

The leviathan replica of Noah’s Ark is being impounded in the Ipswich waterfront, England, due to a lack of paperwork proving its seaworthiness, and it is costing the owner a fair penny.

The biblical ship managed the trek across the North Sea from the Netherlands, arriving in November 2019, and has been stuck in the UK for 18 months since, reports The Telegraph.

It essentially came as a giant floating museum (70 metres long, to be exact), full of sculptures of biblical characters, and has already welcomed around 15 000 visitors:

Image: Alamy Stock Photo

Adam and Eve sculptures. Image: East Anglia News Service

The owner of the replica Ark, Dutch TV and theatre producer Aad Peters, is desperate for it to be allowed home, describing his Ark as “a message of hope” and “an educational and cultural celebration of many of the Bible’s legendary stories”.

Peters even pleaded on Facebook to get his ship home:

“The Ark needs to move…this Old Testament ship with the Tree of Life and He who brought forgiveness on board needs to be in motion again.”

But the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it did not have the right paperwork:

Documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Ipswich Star, reveal the MCA has ruled it cannot release the Ark until it has a load line certificate and papers to show it meets anti-fouling laws.

The certificate is issued by the country where a vessel is registered and states how low it can safely sink in the water when fully loaded under different conditions.

The coastguard also wants to see evidence that the Ark complies with international rules banning hulls from being treated with anti-fouling paint which contains chemicals harmful to wildlife.

Since the ship is 61 years old, the condition of the vessel also raised some “serious concerns” among the UK authorities.

The fact that it wasn’t registered in the UK hasn’t made the ordeal any easier, either.

All the back-and-forths about getting it out of Ipswich has cost the owners £12 132 (roughly R230 000), while it has also been incurring £500 (almost R10 000) daily fines since April 1.

A spokesperson for the MCA said that Noah’s Ark will “remain detained until all the deficiencies have been put right and an MCA surveyor is invited to check they’ve been corrected.”

Meanwhile, Peters and his people are desperately trying to settle on an agreed towage plan.

Let’s just hope there’s no real flood coming for this stuck Ark.

[source:telegraph]