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

[Brad Haslett]

Ben,

Politics is supposedly verboten on the Beechcraft list but it creeps
in once in a while, most often related to fuel prices.  There's a few
oil men on the list so one best do their homework before they chime in
with a crude opinion.  Pilots are a pretty conservative bunch anyway
so political discussions consist of a lot of, "uh huh, I agree, damn
right!", etc. There are a few owners of other brands of aircraft who
want to own a Beech and occasionally they pop-up with a comment of "I
really would like a Bonanza but my Piper/Cessna/Mooney/ ____________
does this or that better".  Then it gets real spirited! Like this
bunch, they get bored and wander off into bullshit land but as soon as
you have a real problem the old hands show immediately brandishing
knives to solve your issue.

Brad

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 5:18 PM, Ben Cittadino <bcittadino at dcs-law.com> wrote:
>
> 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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