The town of Freeport is in a position to take possession, through a 2013 consent agreement, of a 113-foot steel boat owned by a nonprofit and being built by Harold Arndt.

The boat is located on Arndt’s property on Bucknam Road, on Lower Flying Point, Town Manager Peter Joseph said last Thursday.

Yet another deadline to remove the vessel from Arndt’s land has been missed, thereby violating the town’s zoning ordinance, Joseph said.

The Town Council will try to figure out what to do next, he said, during the districts 2 and 4 council workshop, scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at the Freeport Community Center.

Joseph said that, as of last Thursday, the council had not decided “where to go” regarding the failure to move the two-masted schooner, called Island Rover and built totally of recycled materials, from Arndt’s property on a private dirt road. The land lies within District 2.

“This has reared its head again,” Joseph said. “It was settled, but the boat has not left the property as of the Sept. 9 deadline. It’s a zoning violation.”

Arndt did not return calls seeking comment.

Several years ago, Arndt transferred ownership of the 94-ton boat to the nonprofit Island Rover Institute, which aims to use it for educational purposes. Arndt is president of the Island Rover Institute. Arndt’s switch to nonproft corporation status in the early 2000s caused the construction to go out of compliance with Freeport zoning laws in the residential neighborhood. A corporation cannot build a boat in that neighborhood.

The Town Council and Arndt had signed an agreement that the project be finished by 2007. Extensions were granted for 2010, 2013 and 2016. The agreements granted the foundation the right to bypass those zoning laws.

Several residents had much to say regarding the issue during the Sept. 20 meeting of the Town Council. Sarah Tracy, District 2 councilor, emailed her constituents prior to that meeting.

“The council was advised (Sept. 20) that Harold Arndt did not meet the deadline under the Superior Court approved consent agreement with the town to launch his boat by Sept. 9, 2016,” Tracy wrote. “The consent agreement gives the town the ability to automatically take title to Mr. Arndt’s property and his boat if he doesn’t meet this final benchmark.”

At the Sept. 20 meeting, the Town Council considered a recommendation by the Municipal Facilities Committee to take title to the property and boat by recording the escrowed deed with the Registry of Deeds, and to extend the launch deadline until next spring-summer due to the fact that Arndt has only a few steps remaining to complete the boat. Tracy said that Carter Becker, owner of Falls Point Marina and an interest holder in the Island Rover Institute, has procured the piece of property nearby to launch the boat and is working on obtaining the requisite approvals to do so.

“The Town Council decided to direct the town manager to take title to the property and the boat pursuant to the consent agreement,” Tracy said. “The council also decided to postpone consideration of next steps, beyond recording the deed, so that neighbors, opponents and supporters can have an opportunity to weigh in on this issue.”

Tracy said that the 2013 consent agreement stipulated that the town could remove the Island Rover from Arndt’s property on or before Sept. 9, 2016, “except for 1. an act of God or 2. a minor agreement between the parties not to exceed 30 days.”

A spring or summer launch would exceed 30 days.

“The town has recorded security interest in the land and the vessel,” Tracy said. “We have the deed and we have the power to record the deed. We are doing due diligence to protect the town from added liabilities.”

The council on Oct. 4 “will consider what to do with the property and the boat and whether to extend Mr. Arndt’s deadline for completion and launch of the vessel,” Tracy continued in the email to constituents. “The council will not be considering whether Mr. Becker will be permitted to put in a boat ramp on the property that he owns nearby – that is before the Department of Environmental Protection and Army Corps (of Engineers), and, at some point, will also be considered by the Coastal Waters Commission.”

The craft has a bedroom, full-size kitchen, sleeping quarters, a research laboratory and dining space. It’s been more some 25 years in the making.

Tom Godfrey, executive director of the Island Rover Institute board, said Monday that with another extension of the town deadline, Island Rover should be ready for launch by Oct. 9. It might take until next spring for the Island Rover Institute to build a launch on a piece of property nearby, Godfrey said. Island Rover Institute board members will make their case to the Town Council during the Oct. 4 meeting.

“We want the town to realize that we’re working just as fast as we can,” Godfrey said. “There hasn’t been a boat built in Freeport this size for 200 years.”

Godfrey said that the institute has hired Gale Hunt to finish up the welding.

“The hull is the last stages,” Godfrey said. “Everything has been framed up and all the deck is on. The shaft log, which runs between the propeller and the engine, is complete. Hunt is finishing up on the rudder log, which carries the rudder shaft from the deck to the rudder.”

The final piece, Godfrey said, is closing it all in with small sheets of steel.

“Once that’s done, which should be in a week, then we sandblast the hull,” Godfrey said. “At that point, it’s ready to go into the water.”

Arndt was working at Bath Iron Works when he began his ambitious boat-building process about 25 years ago.

“He was working in the purchasing department, and he noticed a lot of those materials would get thrown away,” Godfrey said. “He started buying stuff and a Bristol man, Bill Petersen, started design work.”

Godfrey said that the intention is to use the Island Rover as an “ocean classroom” for sail training.

“That remains our main focus,” Godfrey said. “The purpose of the boat is to be an educational platform. There will be a crew and clients, and the boat will be operated on a self-susatining basis, through tuition payments.”

The massive Island Rover, still unfinished, rests on the property of its ower, Harold Arndt, on Bucknam Road in Freeport.