HAMPTON — The Seacoast area's newest resident celebrity has been entertaining locals for months, although the celebrity isn't a person. It's a giant boat, and one that has generated tales taller than the vessel itself.

HAMPTON — The Seacoast area's newest resident celebrity has been entertaining locals for months, although the celebrity isn't a person. It's a giant boat, and one that has generated tales taller than the vessel itself.



Alicia Preston and her Hampton Harbor neighbors were enthralled when they first saw the 75-foot, engineless and captainless white yacht make aimless, meandering passes across the shallow waters, almost as if some bizarre movie were unfolding before their eyes.



The ship known as Guest List also has had no shortage of outlandish rumors on its manifest since it was first sighted.



There have been whispers that the tattered old Navy Burger yacht would be transformed into the area's newest restaurant, while many swear the vessel is fated for a fiery explosion in a Denzel Washington flick. Some even say the living quarters are being used as a secret pornography studio.



These rumors haven't just been floating through the Seacoast area — they've been barreling full steam ahead, and they've turned the yacht, which now sits idle and immobile in the marsh, into quite a spectacle.



"It was humorous because we all just watched it slowly coming, slowly coming," said Preston. "There was a humorous side of it because it's this giant boat and no one's done anything about it."



There has always been a hint of fear within the comedy surrounding Guest List because it broke free of not one but two moorings after it was first brought to Hampton late last fall. Harbor officials said the yacht found its way to Hampton — after stops in ports in Massachusetts, Maine and the Portsmouth area— because the marina was thought to be the only one that had the space and ability to store the hulking shell of a boat for the Brazilian citizen who purchased it.



Guest List proved otherwise not long after arriving in Hampton, as it broke free and floated throughout the harbor, nearly striking the bridge. It was temporarily subdued by its second mooring in January, although the boat once again set itself free to embark on an unmanned voyage.



Complicating the matter was the fact that harbor and state officials were completely unsuccessful in making contact with the owner of the "fiberglass monster" because he returned to Brazil, according to Jim Patenaude, the service manager at Hampton Harbor Boatworks.



Officials thought they found the solution for their white whale by grounding it — with permission from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, according to Chief Harbor Master Tracy Shattuck— along the marsh adjacent to its original mooring and behind Preston's 25 Tuttle Ave. home.



That's when the saga's script fully flipped from a comedy to a thriller for harborside residents.



Each passing storm and high tide reportedly drew the boat closer and closer to the homes in the area, including one particularly rough day where Preston's mother Judy, the owner of 25 Tuttle Ave., thought it would come crashing through her window.

"It wasn't funny anymore," said Preston. "The humor went a little bit awry when it almost knocked my house down."



The slow creep through the muck ripped a large hole in the underside of the yacht, causing its stern to sink deep into the mud and fully halt its journey, according to Patenaude. Despite this, the legend of Guest List has continued, as the yacht has now sat idle for over three months and has caused a new slate of issues, much to the displeasure of Hampton residents and officials.



"People are very concerned," said Town Manager Fred Welch. "It's a mess."



The vessel has begun disturbing the inlet in its current location, causing water to pool and flow past the yacht into an area with wetlands, possibly in violation of state law, according to Welch. The yacht's deck has also reportedly become a popular spot for late-night drinking parties, and as Memorial Day weekend arrives locals are worried about who would be liable should someone get injured while partying atop Guest List because town, police, port and state officials all claim they don't have jurisdiction over the location in which the boat is grounded.



You can call Preston frustrated.



"I have tried like hell to get someone to do something about it," said Preston. "The boat's just too big for here. There's just no reason it was here in the first place."



While Guest List has been idle for months, Shattuck said it's not because the yacht is abandoned or forgotten. Shattuck said the boat has remained stuck in the marsh because it can't be removed until marina space opens up in Newburyport, Mass., which he said is the only area port with both the equipment needed to haul a 75-foot yacht out of the marsh and properly store it.



Patenaude said it'll "probably" be sometime around "the first week of June" before that happens, as space for the boat will only be found in Newburyport after individuals claim the boats that they stored there for the winter. Then, Guest List will reportedly receive its finishing restoration touches and an engine before its owners drive it to Florida to reportedly use it as a house boat.



Patenaude said it'll cost a small fortune to perform all of this work, which is part of the reason why Hampton Harbor accepted the yacht in the first place. That said, even though a good chunk of that revenue will be coming to his business, Patenaude said Guest List has caused enough of a headache that he's more eager about the day he can finally bid it bon voyage.



"(It) would make a good artificial reef right now," said Patenaude, joking that it would be "great" if the vessel just sunk. "I'm tired of looking at it, that's for sure."