What Causes Boats to Be Abandoned?
It is often against the law to leave a boat unless the situation is really serious.
Instead of abandoning a boat, it is critical that boat owners either legally transfer ownership of the vessel or have it properly removed and demolished if the boat is beyond repair.
However, there have been cases in which boats have been stolen and subsequently abandoned by criminals after they have dismantled the boat for its valuable pieces.
In this essay, we will address the ethical and legal ramifications of leaving your boat, as well as the process by which a boat comes to be abandoned in the first place.
Here are eight reasons why a boat may be abandoned:
1. Extreme weather conditions
Extreme weather conditions are one of the most common causes for a boat to be abandoned.
Thousands of boats were relocated as a result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which devastated the gulf coast of the United States with an immense storm and catastrophic flood.
Obviously, this would not be grounds for legal action against the property owners since this was a huge national disaster, but not all severe weather circumstances are hurricanes.
Consequently, if you do lose your boat in a thunderstorm (say, it gets unmoored and floats away), you will still be accountable for it if and when it reappears anywhere and is reported.
During a storm, most boats either go missing or get unmoored. If your boat is discovered and reported to the authorities, you will have a limited amount of time to pay to have it either returned to your house or marina, or you will have to pay to have it demolished.
If you fail to remove the boat within the time frame specified by local authorities, you may face a fine as well as prison time.
2. Exorbitantly Expensive Boat Removal
Occasionally, a boat’s capacity to sail has outlived its usefulness, and its owners are more than eager to part with it.
Nonetheless, attempting to trade or pawn your damaged or obsolete boat may be quite difficult due to the fact that no one wants to invest the money and time necessary to restore it. So the most cost effective approach is to pay for its removal by the appropriate authorities or towing services, and then have it scrapped at a boat scrap yard.
When this occurs, the majority of boat owners think that it is best to dump the boat someplace or to cut it free and let it drift out to sea.
This is highly reckless, and it is almost certainly against the law.
Not only is it possible for the boat to go aground and pollute the natural habitat, but it also has the potential to become a deadly obstruction for other vessels out on the water if it does.
If you are attempting to get rid of an old boat, you will be required to pay a fee to have the vessel removed from your property.
The services of boat salvage yards and local governments are readily accessible in your region. If, however, you are not in close proximity to one of these services, contact local towing businesses and ask if they can put you in touch with someone who specializes in boat salvage.
3. Exorbitantly Expensive Boat Maintenance
Repairing a dead boat may be very expensive, both in terms of money and in terms of time and effort on the part of the owner. This is similar to the cost of boat removal.
If you are not financially prepared to repair your boat when it is in need of repair, the boat will continue to deteriorate and become more unusable.
This often occurs when a boat owner is left with a boat or receives a boat as a gift, or when a boat owner has owned the same boat for more than 10 years. Frequently, that boat will not stand up to regular usage or wear and tear over an extended period of time, and the boat owner will feel dissatisfied with the vessel.
Owners of boats who experience this kind of situation are more inclined to leave their vessel rather than spend the money necessary to restore it.
However, if the boat is salvageable, you may be able to sell it to someone who is interested in taking on a fix-up job.
You might also consider donating it to a vocational school that specializes in vessel repair and maintenance.
Here are the most effective methods for junking a boat.
4. Financial Difficulties
Because of financial difficulties, there are several reasons why someone may leave a boat.
A boat is a nice purchase for the ordinary family, but it also comes with a great deal of responsibility and financial obligations. If you are not prepared to pay for the necessary upkeep that a boat requires, do not purchase a boat.
This will avoid the abandoning of rusting old boats in marshy regions, lakes, and even the ocean, and the subsequent contamination of the environment.
Nothing is more depressing than seeing a rotting ship slip into the pristine sands of a seashore, abandoned and slowly sinking into the ground underneath it.
5.Theft.
When it comes to vehicles and boats, theft is truly a significant concern since the thief is often aiming to shred pieces of the boat rather than keeping the boat for himself or themself.
Once a burglar has taken possession of your boat, he or she will dismantle it and resale the individual sections for profit. Later, after removing any kind of identifying from the boat, they would dump it someplace and leave it there for someone else to discover it.
If your boat is taken, it isn’t your responsibility that it was abandoned in the first place.
Furthermore, if you reported the theft to the police, you will be alerted as soon as the boat is discovered and returned to you. Even if there is no identification of the boat’s owner left on board, the description you provide to the authorities is critical in ensuring that your yacht is restored to your possession.
It’s important to remember, though, that if your boat is stolen, you will almost certainly be missing some vital elements, which will most likely be the most valuable ones.
As a result, having boating insurance comes in useful when it comes time to file a claim and replace critical components such as the engine or navigational equipment.
Finally, some thefts are just transitory in nature, such as pranks or neighbors taking your boat without your knowledge or consent. Perhaps such situations are short and your boat is returned to you with all of its parts in tact and intact.
6. Misplaced or Drifted Boats Occasionally, a boat becomes dislodged by quite normal or occasionally bizarre conditions.
Even if a severe storm hasn’t blown your boat away from the marina and dropped it a few miles inland someplace, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that boats may just drift away on their own!
First-time boat owners are well aware that properly tying down your yacht is critical to maintaining the safety of your vessel. It will keep it firmly attached to the dock, and you won’t have to worry about it colliding with other boats or vanishing into thin air.
However, there have been occasions in which passengers have been disoriented while still within the boat.
If the anchor falls free while you are still on board, but you can prove that your boat had a technical failure or that you were sleeping, you may be forced to abandon your boat when you attempt to depart to seek assistance. A tow from the coast guard is your only option if you don’t want to ask for help.
Even if these abandonments are unintentional and transitory, the owner is nonetheless liable for retrieving the boat if the local authorities discover it.
Wrecks are number seven on the list.
A boat disaster may be a gruesome and even terrifying experience if you are on board at the moment of the accident.
The coast guard may not be able to salvage the boat or pull it back to land if it starts to sink while you are calling for assistance.
This means that there is a considerable likelihood that the boat will end up in the bottom of a lake or sea if this is the case.
When a boat is lost to sinking, the owner is still legally responsible for marking the site with a buoy, signal, or light and contacting boat removal services to have the boat removed as promptly and safely as possible.
It is possible that this may be rather expensive, but the good news is that most boat insurance policies will pay the cost of a boat removal after your claim has been submitted and processed.
Wrecks that have a historical significance
Shipwrecks from the past are a fascinating thing for current explorers to… well, investigate.
Even wrecks that date back to the 1970s are teeming with intriguing artifacts and have the potential to become a fish breeding ground – provided, of course, that the boat is not decaying and releasing dangerous chemicals into the water.
If you come across a crash that seems to have been there for a time, it is probable that no one is legally responsible for removing it from the scene. Because of the period of time that has gone, it has been designated as a historical wreck.
Although an abandoned boat from the 1970s may not be as visually striking as a ship from the early 1900s or earlier, the potential pollution or exploration that these vessels represent to the environment may be both damaging and interesting at the same time.
In many cases, local governments or committees will determine whether or not they wish to remove a hazardous wreck that no one has a claim to any more, in which case appropriate removal services and authorities will be contacted.
Concluding Remarks
Although owning a boat might become difficult under the correct conditions, it is vital to realize that leaving your boat is not the solution.
You must use extreme caution while disposing of your vessel and ensuring that it is transported to the appropriate salvage yards.
If you don’t, you might endanger the lives of individuals, animals, and even the natural environment.