who is responsible for derelict boats?

Stovepipe

Hi all,
genuine curiosity: who is responsible for apparently abandoned boats? Every harbour appears to have a permanent supply of old boats in rag order that seem to have been there forever with no sign of them being cleared away, so who is responsible for them?

regards
Stovepipe

Peregrinus

Under the Harbours Act, if a ship is in a harbour and doesn't have authority to be there under the harbour bye-laws, and if its presence in the harbour is causing a problem with harbour operations, the harbourmaster can direct the master of the ship to remove it to "such place or anchorage as the harbour master may direct" (which, presumably, may be outside the harbour). The "master" of a ship is the person having command or charge of a ship and, in default of a sailing master, I imagine the master would be the owner of the ship.

Note that it makes no difference here whether the vessel is derelict or not.

Obviously, particular harbour bye-laws might make further provision about this.

Stovepipe

I'm thinking more about the plethora of abandoned fishing boats that seem to cluster around small ports and harbours. It appears that some people just abandon craft and walk away and leave the local authorities to clean up the remains.

CJhaughey

If you are curious, look up the fleet register and see if the license is active.
If it is the boat may be laid up for different reasons.
They have names and official numbers on them so you can identify the owners.

Stovepipe

nothing serious; i was just looking at some photos of old boats and it struck me that someone owned them yet they were allowed to lie derelict. If I left a car outside my house, the corpo would be on to me in a heartbeat to shift it.

CJhaughey

Stovepipe wrote: »

nothing serious; i was just looking at some photos of old boats and it struck me that someone owned them yet they were allowed to lie derelict. If I left a car outside my house, the corpo would be on to me in a heartbeat to shift it.

Are you sure they are derelict though? Boats can lie up for long periods and still go back fishing when they need or are able to.
The East coast razor fleet are a pretty sorry looking bunch of boats though, I wasn't impressed by them when I had a look over a few.

Stovepipe

I was at a small regional harbour and some of the boats, both pleasure boats and small fishing boats were obviously derelict, ie, missing planks, rotten structure, rusted out cabins and so on..

5rtytry56

Stove there's a method to your madness here. I know of a seaside town with such a harbour which has a lot of young families a certain times of the year. This represent s a safety issue. Some young kids like to explore too.