[Rhodes22-list] News Item Re Economy and Boat Owners

[Ben Cittadino]

Brad;

You mentioned your "other" list. I'm curious. Does that list (which I assume
is for aviators and/or aircraft owners) have the same kind of, shall we say,
spirited(?), political debates as we do? Or is it just us?

Ben C.




Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
> 
> Ben,
> 
> Look at the bright side, what a great time to be in the market for a
> boat.  Airplane prices fell sharply about a year ago because of fuel
> prices so I'm used to the whining from my other list.  Just as avgas
> fell below 5 bucks a gallon, the stock and real estate markets crashed
> so there's still no hope on the horizon.  The environmental damage
> from sinking an abandoned boat is inexcusable. My brother "recycled" a
> number of boats on the MS coast after Katrina.  There was a short
> learning curve and the final solution is you pick them up with the
> hydraulic thumb on our trackhoe and stuff them in a 20' waste
> container.  About 70% falls apart in the container and the rest you
> throw over the side.  I'm guessing the total time required for a 30
> foot or so plastic boat is about 45 seconds.
> 
> Brad
> 
> On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 3:26 PM, Ben Cittadino <bcittadino at dcs-law.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Man THIS is depressing:
>>
>>
>> "In bad economy, boat owners abandon their vessels
>> November 13, 2008 3:28 PM EST
>> SAN FRANCISCO - From Southern California to Maine, the foundering
>> economy,
>> high fuel prices and poor fishing have driven boat owners to abandon
>> perhaps
>> thousands of vessels on the waterfront, where they are beginning to break
>> up
>> and sink, leaking oil and other pollutants.
>>
>> Boats have long been a barometer of consumer confidence, disposable
>> income
>> and the overall state of the economy. Now, marina and harbor officials
>> are
>> reporting a sudden increase in the past year in the number of deserted
>> pleasure boats and working vessels.
>>
>> In Antioch, a town about 45 miles east of San Francisco, harbormaster
>> John
>> Cruger-Hansen showed up at his marina one day last spring to find the
>> horizon changed overnight. On the San Joaquin River, he saw an old crane,
>> a
>> rusted barge, a tugboat and an assortment of other junked boats, all of
>> which had been hauled in and left illegally.
>>
>> "Boating is a pure luxury and one of the first things to go when the
>> economy
>> turns south," said Cruger-Hansen, who expects to see more abandoned boats
>> by
>> year's end. "If it comes to the point of putting food on the table or
>> paying
>> the boat slip fee, it's the boat that goes."
>>
>> Unlike cars, wooden and fiberglass boats have virtually no scrap value.
>> So
>> rather than pay the high cost of hauling their boats to the dump, people
>> ditch them or sell them for as little as $1 to anyone who will take them.
>> The boats often break up and go under, or pass into the underground
>> economy
>> of nighttime scuttlers- who, for a fee, remove traceable identification
>> numbers, strip out salvageable items and sink the vessels.
>>
>> "Oil, gasoline and sewage from these boat leaks into the aquatic
>> environment," said Sejal Choksi, program director at San Francisco
>> Baykeeper, an environmental organization. Boat paint often contains
>> chromium, lead, mercury and other toxic chemicals, and as a vessel
>> deteriorates, the coating flakes off and settles on the sea floor or
>> river
>> bottom, where fish swallow it, Choksi said.
>>
>> Government officials and environmental groups are calling for more
>> programs
>> and funding to prevent and clean up the junkyard flotillas.
>>
>> But removing just one sunken sailboat can cost upwards of $12,000, and
>> taking away larger commercial vessels is even more expensive.
>>
>> With nearly a million registered boats, California - the second-largest
>> boating state behind Florida - spends about $500,000 each year removing
>> deserted recreational boats. The state has no money to remove commercial
>> boats, and unless they are leaking oil or blocking a navigation channel,
>> the
>> Coast Guard is not required to take them away.
>>
>> "At the state and federal level something needs to be done with these
>> derelict commercial vessels. They just sit there, falling apart," said
>> Contra Costa County sheriff's Sgt. Doug Powell, who patrols the mouth of
>> the
>> San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta. Nearly 30 decaying tugboats, fishing
>> boats, cranes and barges make up the aquatic junkyard in Powell's county.
>>
>> High fuel prices and several disastrous years in the nation's fishing
>> industry have led fishermen to desert salmon boats in Washington state,
>> crab
>> boats in Maryland, trawlers in Oregon and lobster boats in Florida.
>>
>> In Georgia, Charles "Buck" Bennett, a natural-resources enforcement
>> manager
>> for the state, regularly finds wooden shrimp boats run aground and left
>> to
>> break apart in the Atlantic Ocean swells.
>>
>> "I'm not an economist, but when putting 500 gallons of fuel in a shrimp
>> boat
>> costs more than the boat is worth, that is a sad thing," Bennett said.
>>
>> Bennett keeps a growing list of broken down boats slated for removal,
>> currently 152 statewide. But with lean economic times and a declining
>> shrimp
>> industry, he guesses there are hundreds more hidden along the state's
>> shoreline and waterways.
>>
>> It's not just barnacle-laden junkers that are being abandoned.
>>
>> In recent months, an increasing number of powerboat and sailboat owners
>> have
>> been failing to pay their slip fees, according to Randy Short, chief
>> executive of Almar Management Inc., a company with 16 luxury marinas in
>> California and Hawaii.
>>
>> When the payments are 40 days delinquent, the marina chains the boat to
>> the
>> dock. Recently, a boat owner in one of Short's Southern California
>> marinas
>> disappeared, leaving behind a $200,000 boat and no contact information.
>>
>> "People get financially upside-down and ditch their boats," Short said,
>> "and
>> you can just forget trying to sell a power boat right now. No one is
>> buying."
>>
>> Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
>> --
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>>
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