Rough day for someone.

69fastback

There were only a few boats on the lake yesterday, being a weekday, but driving by I noticed this boat was on the rocks. I cautiously approached it to see if anyone was still onboard but found that it was empty. About an hour later Towboat US showed up to recover it. I couldn’t see any significant damage to the front of the hull, so I’m assuming it lost power and drifted ashore against the dam. They were using the inflatable bags to try and get it out. We left at about 7:00pm and they were still working to get it off the rocks. 

aero3113

I saw this at my marina this morning. Looks like he went to pull it out with a trailer not rated for his boat. 

TonyG13

69fastback said:

There were only a few boats on the lake yesterday, being a weekday, but driving by I noticed this boat was on the rocks. I cautiously approached it to see if anyone was still onboard but found that it was empty. About an hour later Towboat US showed up to recover it. I could see any significant damage to the front of the hull, so I’m assuming it lost power and drifted ashore against the dam. They were using the inflatable bags to try and get it out. We left at about 7:00pm and they were still working to get it off the rocks. 

Just curious - could this work? If you went to check to make sure if anyone was aboard to see if they were OK -- and no one was, and no one was actively working to re-float it -- could you jump on and claim salvage? Saying it was abandoned?

GMSLITHO

wow really small trailer the last roller is 4 feet from the stern 

rasbury

Ya think ??? Geesh...thankfully he never got it on the road!

cmelt2003

Life’s Too Short... to get a real trailer that’s made for a bigger boat...

zaverin1

Trailer 2 short should be the name 

Black_Diamond

Technically, you abandon your boat like the one in the pic and yes you can claim it for yourself as salvage. 

If your boat needs a tow, someone offers and uses THEIR lines: can claim as salvage too. Marine law is quite different from ‘land law’. 

69fastback

I mean COULDN’T see any damage and made the edit. 


Even if you could claim it as salvage, that’d be a pretty rotten thing to do. Poor guy was already having a bad enough day. 

rasbury

I'd like to see someone claim my boat after a tow...they'd probably give it back in a couple days anyway....

Black_Diamond

@shawnmjr: good question. That I do not know. 

cls10105

Claiming my boat comes with a payment book. I dont know how they the bank  would feel about it hey i broke down they towed me in. Sorry Mr bank man but you dont have a boat anymore. 

LaRea

Well, no, you can't just claim an abandoned boat.

If you salvage a boat and you're willing to spend time in court, the court can force the owner or insurer to pay you some portion of the boat's value.  For a salvage involving substantial risk and effort, the award can be large.  If all you do is spend 20 minutes putting a line on the boat and pulling her off the rocks, it would be a smaller award.  

But it's not like you just see a boat with nobody aboard and say "mine."

randy56

Every state has different laws, in my state that’s called stealing.

Willhound

And it's not like it was "abandoned at sea". Help was alerted and was on the way.

nhsd

I am afraid that if someone claimed my boat under "the Law of the Sea" that I would have to claim my right under "the Law of Piracy" to put a small hole in their head....

Blackbeard

NRath

That 1st guy wasn't so bad off...  Check out this one.  I was kayaking this day while on vacation about a month ago.  Apparently been sitting for almost a week.




Thats a REALLY bad day!!!

69fastback

OUCH!

mattie

betcha there are some open liquor bottles on board....

at least you could walk home from that one.

reneechris14

There is water all around that boat just not enough under it.

cls10105

That’s a million dollar boat right? 

cmelt2003

I know I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing my boat was left out there like that!

Willhound

And a channel marker too!

[Deleted User]

Great opportunity to do some bottom painting, starboard only.
Andy

LaRea

Well, maybe now it's worth a million dollars.  It wasn't five weeks ago.  

I looked for reports of a yacht from Orange Beach running aground, but found none. Definitely a "rough day."

LaRea

This eff-book post says she's a 78-footer, and they had to dig her out.  

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Reefmaker%20aground&epa=SEARCH_BOX

rasbury

Looks like he got confused on the markers and got out of the channel....on our coast a momentary confusion  can end up like this quickly.

NRath

I jumped on board and tried to rock her loose- no go.  LOL!

I wouldn't have guessed 78' on it, but it was a wee bit longer than my 10' kayak!  I was told it was mentioned on TV a day or so before we were there.  I hope somebody will get a decent deal on an insurance recovery.  That said, the boat wasn't hurt in the least above water.  no telling how the part that was buried 18" in the sand fared.

I thought that boats name was "Knot Funny".