Boats Too Costly to Keep Are Littering Coastlines

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01boats.html?_r=2&ref=business



MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Boat owners are abandoning ship.
Brett Flashnick for The New York Times


They often sandpaper over the names and file off the registry numbers, doing their best to render the boats, and themselves, untraceable. Then they casually ditch the vessels in the middle of busy harbors, beach them at low tide on the banks of creeks or occasionally scuttle them outright.

The bad economy is creating a flotilla of forsaken boats. While there is no national census of abandoned boats, officials in coastal states are worried the problem will only grow worse as unemployment and financial stress continue to rise. Several states are even drafting laws against derelicts and say they are aggressively starting to pursue delinquent owners.

“Our waters have become dumping grounds,” said Maj. Paul R. Ouellette of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “It’s got to the point where something has to be done.”

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Some of those disposing of their boats are in the same bind as overstretched homeowners: they face steep payments on an asset that is diminishing in value and decide not to continue. They either default on the debt or take bolder measures.

Marina and maritime officials around the country say they believe, however, that most of the abandoned vessels cluttering their waters are fully paid for. They are expensive-to-maintain toys that have lost their appeal.

The owners cannot sell them, because the secondhand market is overwhelmed. They cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars a month mooring and maintaining them. And they do not have the thousands of dollars required to properly dispose of them.

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California is taking a more benign approach, with plans in the Legislature for a boater bailout of sorts. Under a law proposed by State Representative Ted Lieu, owners of marginally seaworthy vessels would be encouraged to surrender them to the state. If they abandoned the boat, the bill would double the fine to $1,000.

[Journeyman]

1. Boat (noun): A hole in the water into which you throw money. . .

understandable why cash-strapped citizens would want to shed themselves of such a financial drain.

[ddeclue]

4. Related: sailing - slowly going nowhere at great expense while getting very wet.

:rofl:

Former sailboat owner..

:rofl:

[Journeyman]

7. I like that. . .

never owned a boat but have heard very little positive from those who have.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. But having great fun!

:)

Another former sailboat owner.

[ddeclue]

13. Depends on the weather...

:)

[cobalt1999]

30. Good Women, Wine, and Boats are all expensive

But well worth it. :)

[underseasurveyor]

33. My sister and her husband tell me that the two happiest days of your life are...

The day you buy your boat and the day you sell it.

[JohnyCanuck]

8. The two happiest days in a boater's life:

The day he buys his boat, and the day he sells it.

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. I think that mostly applies to the boater who buys his boat secondhand.

I bought mine brand new, and see no reason to get rid of it other than someday to get a larger one. It starts the first time I bump the starter and runs like a dream. I didn't buy someone else's problem.

[ddeclue]

21. Give it a couple of years... boats require a lot of upkeep...especially ocean going ones.

[TheWraith]

2. Hey, just let people salvage the things. Hell, I'd take one. nt

[dysfunctional press]

3. i wouldn't think that anyone is stopping anyone from doing so...

isn't it some kind of 'maritime law' that abandoned boats are free game for salvage- first come, first served?...? isn't that how micheal caine claimed the poseidon in the sequel?

go down there and grab one...or two. :shrug:

[ddeclue]

6. I don't think that applies when the boat isn't sunk and when someone else hold's the loan on it

and when the boat is not in international waters.

I think that the state in which they are abandoned can claim ownership and re-sell them at auction if they can't identify an owner.

[dysfunctional press]

23. the article said that a lot of the boats are fully paid for.

and as long as they are in navigable water- maritime law applies. it doesn't have to be in "international waters"

[ddeclue]

5. Until you have to rent a slip and keep it from deteriorating, etc.

The reason they got abandoned in the first place was largely because the owners can't afford to keep them.

If you didn't have to pay for the boat, it might be more manageable but boats and planes are expensive toys, especially ocean going boats.

[KittyWampus]

9. I've known several guys who were happy to GIVE AWAY their sailboats. They are albatrosses

if you don't have the money to pay for the upkeep and storage or the time to do it yourself.

[Squatch]

10. If it flies, floats or fucks, you're better off renting

:)

[ddeclue]

12. ZOMG!!!

Offensive...

:hide:

[ChoralScholar]

14. ZOMG

Buy a plane, a boat, and get married, then get back to us!! :) Ha!

Just kidding... Seriously - I love boats, but I wouldn't own one that was too big to put on a trailer and drag to my house. Then again, I realize that not all people have that option.

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. agree. Seemed that one in the picture is small enough to park in someone's back yard.

[ddeclue]

17. I'm a licensed pilot and I used to own a sailboat...

the last part of that is what is offensive...

I stopped flying in 2002 the last time the economy got bad and I could no longer afford it.

I sold the boat (a little day sailer) when I moved to FL.

Marriage seems hopeless at least for the present... no job, no money, no prospects at least for now..

:(

[ChoralScholar]

18. Hey - don't sweat it. If I were single, I'd be loaded.

But I digress.

I was just bantering and being silly.

Sorry to hear about your boat... it must have been tough to see it go.

[ddeclue]

19. Too small for FL 16'...don't want to be in a boat smaller than the gators and the sharks..

:rofl:

[aquart]

16. So confiscating Madoff's boats did him a favor? Damn.

[spag68]

22. boats

Not all sailboats are that expensive. I had an 18 foot Hobie cat in 1968 in Miami. My friends and I would wait for storm warnings and take it into Biscayne Bay to see how fast we could go without turning it over. If it did get turned over, we just righted it and flew again. Don't tell me that was not fun!!!! The boat was cheap and a couple hundred a year for upkeep was not so bad.

[C......N......C]

24. A lot of these boats can't be moved because of environmental laws.

I did a lot of salvage work after Ivan. There are a lot of laws regarding disturbing the bottom, grasses, trees etc.

[spinbaby]

25. That doesn't make sense

Aren't the grasses and trees happier without a boat sitting on them?

[C......N......C]

26. I agree, but the laws are definitive and very strict. You can't disturb any vegetation in removing

the boats. There are boats here that have been here for years and can't be removed due to environmental laws. They would have to be removed by huge helicopters that there aren't any funds for.

[NNN0LHI]

27. My neighbor has owned a boat for the past 6 or 7 years

He pays to store it all winter then drags it into his driveway in the spring where he does maintenance on it all summer long. It never moves until the fall when he puts it back into storage and the process starts all over again.


Don

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. Wheeeee.. sounds like fun. lol

[KansDem]

28. Just sail them over to Somalia and let the pirates seize them.

Problem solved...

[cobalt1999]

29. I would think just putting an ad out for free boat would get it off their hands

Instead of dumping it.

After college I lived on a boat. The docking fees and boat upkeep was less than an apartment rental and my "apartment" could actually go someplace.

Offer them up for free.

[Sgent]

32. As a boater and owner

My personal view is that they ought to increase the registration fees on boats, then take the additional money to supply places where people can take the boats to be disposed of for free.

There is no question that some boats have a negative value -- the cost to dispose of them is more than the recycled materials you can get out of them.