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Letter to the editor

Storm tosses boat; it lands on your property; what next?

It does not always speed up the process when owners get the city involved.

By NICK JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
Published December 23, 2007

GULFPORT - Last week's cold front brought 45 mph winds and rough seas to Boca Ciega Bay.

The storm left something extra in two spots along Gulfport's waterfront, sailboats that were snapped free from their anchors and run ashore by the waves.

Both boats landed on private property, one in the shallows along 31st Avenue S near the fishing pier, the other wedged along the seawall on Baywood Point Drive S, just across from the city marina.

Tim Meier and his roommate rent a house on Baywood. They heard a loud noise during the storm but didn't bother to check it out.

"I didn't even know what it was until the next morning when I woke up and saw a big boat tipped over," Meier said.

A 26-foot sailboat belonging to Carol Anne Gober of Gulfport was wedged against the seawall in just a few feet of water.

Gober assured Meier she planned to remove the boat, tides permitting, Friday night. She said that the boat had been anchored in the bay for about four years and this was the first time it had broken free.

But not all boaters are responsible and things don't always go so smoothly. When a boat goes unclaimed, the job of removing it falls on the city's Leisure Services director, Jim O'Riley.

"I can take custody of it within about five days if someone doesn't make contact and it's a hazard," O'Riley said. "We've had them wash up in the swim zone and I can go get them right away."

But boats often wash up in an area that isn't a hazard and where they don't impede navigation, which can lead to a much more drawn out process.

First the city tries to locate the owner, by finding out who the boat is registered to. Then it notifies the owner of the situation, allowing enough time to remove the boat.

The process can take weeks, leaving the property owner with an unsightly addition to their waterfront view.

"They're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. They don't want these people with derelict boats to approach them," council member Bob Worthington said. "Some of these people who own sailboats are nice and very polite, but some of them are plumb scary."

When boats go unclaimed after attempts to contact the owner, they are towed to the city marina.

"If it has value, then we store it until we can take action against the owner," O'Riley said.

That leaves people like the property owner on 31st Avenue S with little option but to wait.

As of Friday the owner of the boat had not been located. The property owner declined to comment.

The problem is nothing new to the people of Gulfport. For years the residents, many of whom are boaters themselves, and city staff have been trying to cope with the nuisance of an irresponsible few and the derelict vessels they leave behind.

"We haven't really had the problem in a while but a couple of years ago we did," council member Michelle King said. "We ended up with a bunch of them coming ashore and it was one of the reasons they brought up putting in the mooring field."

The mooring field, a row of permanently fixed buoys that boats tie up to, is the planned solution in Boca Ciega Bay. The project is in the permitting phase.

Many of the boats that wash ashore have been left unattended; a mooring field would require they be inspected and properly maintained.

Gober said a resource like that might have prevented her predicament.

"I'm really in favor of the mooring field they're trying to put in; I would definitely use it."

Nick Johnson can be reached at nickjohnson@sptimes.com or 893-8361.

[Last modified December 22, 2007, 21:56:55]