The owner of the Pasado Mañana, one of two boats that washed ashore last week at East Beach, has lost his 50-foot vessel after letting it sit on the beach for about a week.

The City of Santa Barbara contracted with MarBorg Industries to demolish the boat and recycle the waste Tuesday, according to Harbor Patrol officials.

The two boats washed ashore after strong winds pushed them onto the beach about 5 a.m. Dec. 22. The Pasado Mañana was found just outside the Cabrillo Bath House, where officials pumped as much as 250 gallons of diesel fuel from the vessel, Harbor Patrol officer Larry Nufer told Noozhawk.

The owner of the other boat, a 25-foot vessel, had retrieved it by the end of last week.

“(The owner) said they didn’t have any money to clean up the boat, so we’re going to be billing them about $2,000,” Nufer said.

He said the city gave the owner seven days to clean up the mess, but after that time was up, MarBorg was given the green light.

“All the fluids and the battery were already taken out of it, so we just had to demolish it and load it in the truck,” said Brian Borgatello, son of MarBorg owner Mario Borgatello Jr.

It took two full excavator loads to dispose of the waste, which totaled about 20 tons, Borgatello said. But the work didn’t end there.

“We had eight of our personnel who took out every toothpick-sized piece of wood, fiberglass and glass to ensure people don’t cut themselves,” he said.

The meticulous cleanup took about four hours, but once at the plant, the material was separated and mostly recycled rather than being sent to a landfill.

“The material goes through a screen to get out any sand, then we pull out the engine and any wood, steel and aluminum to recycle it,” Borgatello said.

He said that while boat owners aren’t required to carry insurance, under circumstances such as these, it would have been in the owner’s best interest, said Borgatello, who cleans up about a dozen boats per year.

“Boat owners should have insurance,” he said. “Although we rarely run across guys with insurance, they should be prepared in storms so if catastrophic things happen they have the funds to pay for the cleanup.”

With a high-wind warning in effect for the area through noon Thursday, Nufer advised owners to bring their boats in and to make sure their equipment works properly.

— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.