An 82 foot motoryacht broke loose form being anchored in Catalina Harbor and is breaking up on the shoreline. As there is no paper trail regarding the ownership of the vessel, the taxpayers will be stuck with the massive clean-up expense. Is it any wonder that municipalities are reluctant to offer "free" anchorages? Ralph Salerno M/V ANCORA San Diego

Roughly the same type of thing happened all over Florida during the bad 2004/5 hurricane seasons, with the counties footing the bill for removing the derelicts whose owners couldn't be traced. Seems to me, the problem is with lax enforcement of registration/documentation requirements, not the existence of free anchorages. One of the purposes of registration/documentation of a boat or car, for that matter, is to determine ownership and consequent responsibility for damage. <><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><> Bob McLeran and Judy Young Manatee Cove Marina MV Sanderling Patrick Air Force Base DeFever 41 Trawler Melbourne, Florida On 2/12/2008 12:57 PM, ralph wrote: > An 82 foot motoryacht broke loose form being anchored in Catalina Harbor and > is breaking up on the shoreline. As there is no paper trail regarding the > ownership of the vessel, the taxpayers will be stuck with the massive > clean-up expense. Is it any wonder that municipalities are reluctant to > offer "free" anchorages?

Wave action, currents, and wind causes Catalina harbor to collect wrecks and flotsam in the back, east end of the harbor. Periodically, the business operator of Two Harbors has to drag the junk up the shallow sloping beach and cart it off to the burn pit or landfill. Catalina is 25 miles offshore, so carting wreckage back to LA is not practical. I don't know who actually pays, it could be Los Angeles County or the mooring operator, but we all will pay in taxes or moorage fees. Larry H ----- Original Message ----- Subject: T&T: Free Anchorage? > An 82 foot motoryacht broke loose form being anchored in Catalina Harbor > and > is breaking up on the shoreline. As there is no paper trail regarding the > ownership of the vessel, the taxpayers will be stuck with the massive > clean-up expense. Is it any wonder that municipalities are reluctant to > offer "free" anchorages? > > Ralph Salerno

indeed, no enforcement, they let derelicts accumulate until it is too late... if a boat is anchored out, it seems to me that it should have an up to date registration sticker... however, i'm not sure how an 80 foot MY can have no paper trail... no name anywhere, no documentation number on board? pascal miami,fl 70 hatteras 53MY live helm cam @ www.sandbarhopper.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob McLeran" <rmcleran@ix.netcom.com> To: "trawler world" <trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:37 PM Subject: Re: T&T: Free Anchorage? > Roughly the same type of thing happened all over Florida during the bad > 2004/5 hurricane seasons, with the counties footing the bill for > removing the derelicts whose owners couldn't be traced. > > Seems to me, the problem is with lax enforcement of > registration/documentation requirements, not the existence of free > anchorages. One of the purposes of registration/documentation of a boat > or car, for that matter, is to determine ownership and consequent > responsibility for damage. > > <><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><> > Bob McLeran and Judy Young Manatee Cove Marina > MV Sanderling Patrick Air Force Base > DeFever 41 Trawler Melbourne, Florida > > > > On 2/12/2008 12:57 PM, ralph wrote: >> An 82 foot motoryacht broke loose form being anchored in Catalina Harbor >> and >> is breaking up on the shoreline. As there is no paper trail regarding >> the >> ownership of the vessel, the taxpayers will be stuck with the massive >> clean-up expense. Is it any wonder that municipalities are reluctant to >> offer "free" anchorages? > _______________________________________________ > 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.

Don't forget that we will all pay higher insurance rates as well. All these vessel losses contribute to the statistics our insurance companies use to set rates. After the hurricanes of 2003/2004&2005 I'm sure everybody remotely close to hurricane zone saw rates go up. To be sure, many if not most of these were not preventable but I have seen some very preventable damage get claimed and paid. What is prudent seamanship to one is just too much effort to another. Simple example is removing all canvas from a boat in the projected path of a storm. I take mine down, my neighbor does not. Could the 82' boat that washed ashore have been prevented with larger ground tackle? Maybe, maybe not....but in the end it will be as you pointed out...we ALL will bear the burden of these losses/cleanup efforts. Just my .02 Joel Wilkins Miss Magoo C-45, #98 S. Pasadena, FL I don't know who actually pays, it could be Los Angeles County or the mooring operator, but we all will pay in taxes or moorage fees. Larry H --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.