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

Thu Nov 13 18:55:13 EST 2008

Ben, as an FYI, , another sail list you may enjoy perusing has a totally separate space for topics other than sailing or specific boats (www.sailboatowners.com). They have the 'Off-topic' category which has two parts: the "Sails Call Lounge, "and the "War Room." It's not possible to do that with the set-up we have here, but it is refreshing to be able to avoid discussions that are not of interest and avoid being bloodied when the fists start swinging.

There's plenty of good sailing info there, much of it non-brand specific.

elle

We can't change the angle of the wind....but we can adjust our sails.

1992 Rhodes 22   Recyc '06  "WaterMusic"   (Lady in Red)

--- On Thu, 11/13/08, Ben Cittadino <bcittadino at dcs-law.com> wrote:

> From: Ben Cittadino <bcittadino at dcs-law.com>
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] News Item Re Economy and Boat Owners
> To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
> Date: Thursday, November 13, 2008, 6:18 PM
> 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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> Nabble.com.
> >>
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> 
> -- 
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