Mike Deach expected to be halfway home to Lopez Island by noon on Monday aboard Bernice, his 60-foot commercial fishing vessel that had been three weeks in the Port of Port Townsend Shipyard.

Instead, he was sipping coffee and waiting for his boat to be returned to the yard after the port’s 75-ton mobile hoist failed while preparing to lower Bernice at the Boat Haven.

The boat dropped about 15 feet in two increments, bow-down in the water but without hitting tthe concrete pier.

No one was hurt.

“The [hoist’s] strap or cable mechanism broke,” Deach said. “It happened as the port was lowering it.… I don’t think they had even started lowering, just pulled it into position. It fell there.”

The 87-year-old fishing vessel, outfitted as a longliner, was brought to the Port Townsend shipyard for new planks on its port side and bow. Also, a mystery leak aft was investigated, bottom paint added and a few other projects completed, said shipwright Dave Thompson, who performed the work along with Allen Katz.

“This is where I usually have my annual work done,” Deach said of Port Townsend.

Scheduled to be lowered back into the water Monday, Jan. 30, the accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m.

The port’s 75-ton-capacity Travelift hoist uses two pairs of canvas slings or straps to lift vessels in and out of the water from a special pier. The slings are connected to a pulley system. The hoist has a cage on which an operator could stand, but it is typically operated by remote control with the operator on the ground behind the machine.

As the hoist was motored into position on the pier, the “gang of pulleys” on the machine’s right front corner failed, broke off and dropped to the pier, Thompson noted. This caused the front pair of slings to drop, shifting the boat bow-down toward the water.

After the accident occurred, the first task was getting the boat safely in the water.

Mike Hogan, a marine trades businessman, stepped up with a hydraulic unit, which he positioned to support the hoist so the rear sling, still in place, could be lowered and the boat dropped smoothly into the water. The vessel was then moved the 30 feet to the port’s heavy haulout pier, where it was removed out of the water using the 300-ton hoist, checked over and then returned to the shipyard.

An initial visual assessment revealed damage to the fishing vessel’s upper hull guard and scuffing on the main guard, Thompson noted. Inside the vessel, “everything went up in the air that wasn’t tied down,” Deach said, due to the boat’s free fall.

A professional marine survey is required now to check for damage, including fuel and water systems, electronics, hull integrity and whether the 5,000-pound engine remains securely attached.

The port’s investigation of the accident is underway, said Abigail Berg, port director of finance and auditor. (Sam Gibboney, port executive director, was out of town Jan. 30-31.)

The hoist is inspected every two weeks, Berg noted.

While the 75-ton hoist is out of commission, port staff are rescheduling to shift boats to either the 300-ton or 60-ton hoist, she said.

Some fluids, probably a mix of fuel and hydraulics, spilled into the Boat Haven; absorbent booms and pads were applied, and a spill response alert initiated.

Thompson, a shipwright who has worked in Port Townsend since 1980, said he could only recall one other time when a boat slipped from a port hoist, and that was because someone apparently had sabotaged the slings.

The commercial salmon season opens April 1, so there’s still time, hopefully, to have the boat inspected, repaired and returned to the water, Deach noted.

The accident won’t deter Deach from bringing his boats to the port of Port Townsend. “I’ll haul out here again,” he said.