The New York Times published an article on April 1 about abandoned boats. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01boats.html? _r=1&ref=business Apparently many owners who are "under water", i.e. have boat loans that are greater than the boat's value, are simply beaching or sinking their boats and swimming away. Identification marks and names are filed or sanded off so the boats can't be traced. These are nor derelicts. Many are surprisingly new or, if older, are still functional. State authorities that recover the boats scrap them or auction them off at very low prices. It might be an opportunity for would be boaters with a few coins jingling in their pocket to pick up a bargain. The problem is worst in the south east and in the north west. As the article said, "Boats are luxury items and today few people can afford the luxury." Larry Z

typical general media inacurate article... all of the abandonned boats that i see around here (and there are quite a few) are old derelicts which have not been insured or registered in years... these are not owners that are upside down on a loan, or "luxury" items, they are $500 boats bought or obtained by folks woudl coulnd't even afford to replace a battery... pascal miami,fl ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lawrence Zeitlin" <lrzeitlin@aol.com> To: <trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com> Cc: "Lawrence Zeitlin" <lrzeitlin@aol.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 3:47 PM Subject: Re: T&T: Abandoned boats > The New York Times published an article on April 1 about abandoned boats. > > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01boats.html? _r=1&ref=business > > Apparently many owners who are "under water", i.e. have boat loans that > are greater than the boat's value, are simply beaching or sinking their > boats and swimming away. Identification marks and names are filed or > sanded off so the boats can't be traced. These are nor derelicts. Many > are surprisingly new or, if older, are still functional. State > authorities that recover the boats scrap them or auction them off at very > low prices. It might be an opportunity for would be boaters with a few > coins jingling in their pocket to pick up a bargain. The problem is worst > in the south east and in the north west. As the article said, "Boats are > luxury items and today few people can afford the luxury." > > Larry Z > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawlers-and-trawlering > > To unsubscribe or modify your subscription options (get password, change > email address, etc) go to: > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/options/trawlers-and-trawlering > > Trawlers & Trawlering and T&T are trademarks of Water World > Productions. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

You must be cruising in an area of Florida that isn't affected by the recession! :-{) Just the past two months there has been an accumulation of at least four abandoned sailboats around the Merritt Island (Florida) area where I travel almost daily. There are a few others (more sailboats) that don't seem to have anyone aboard or taking care of them that may well be abandoned. <><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><> Bob McLeran and Judy Young Manatee Cove Marina MV Sanderling Patrick Air Force Base DeFever 41 Trawler Melbourne, Florida On 4/1/2009 6:17 PM, Pascal Gademer wrote: > typical general media inacurate article... all of the abandonned boats > that i see around here (and there are quite a few) are old derelicts > which have not been insured or registered in years... these are not > owners that are upside down on a loan, or "luxury" items, they are > $500 boats bought or obtained by folks woudl coulnd't even afford to > replace a battery... > > pascal > miami,fl