This boat turned up unannounced on a friend's mooring whilst he was having a well earned holiday up the Hawkesbury. He rang the water police and they said it was a Maritime problem. Finally a red sticker was put on it threatening removal. It has been over 6 weeks now since the boat first turned up and 2 weeks since the notice. Does anyone know this boat?

Tow to police mooring. Problem solved.

Thunderbirds are go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahahahah love it !!! squatter boat !! still afloat ......... boom tish !

Bet you it was on the hard somewhere and fell into the water one Sunday night....

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David88 said..
Tow to police mooring. Problem solved.

Police said all full

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Ramona said..
Thunderbirds are go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...are go nowhere but on someone else's mooring.

So let me get this right. A boat appears on your mooring ,you notify authorities and nothing happens for eight weeks! Where do you put your own boat while it gets sorted out.

One quiet night you go out and gently let it go. Then the mooring is free. Pop the anchor over if you like. Then put your own boat back on.

8 weeks? Bundled rag soaked in linseed oil thrown into the boat as you innocuously pass by. He must have been doing the woodwork and forgot to clean up...for once.

Put it on ebay starting at $1.00

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oldboyracer said..
So let me get this right. A boat appears on your mooring ,you notify authorities and nothing happens for eight weeks! Where do you put your own boat while it gets sorted out.

Well no, my friend made the phone calls 3 weeks ago as he was off mooring sailing. He was surprised that water police said it was his fault for leaving his mooring vacant for "so long"

He left his boat on anchor in Brisbane waters and got lectured by Maritime up there.

I think Maritime have a lot of derelict boats on their hands at the moment

You just can't win in this situation.

If the mooring breaks while some pirate is on it, you are liable.

If you let it go or anchor it, you are liable.

If you tie up to your mooring and just fend the offender alongside you, you will be liable.

Then you have the cops copping out by saying it is your fault for being off the mooring too long and maritime bugging out too saying they have nowhere to put it.

Then there is the 90 day anchoring rule.

Just crazy!!!!

The cabin is open so I would be tossing some dead things in there. Whoever owns it is obviously a grub of the first order.

The problem is that now we did it the right way. Ie notify authorities etc, you can't touch it as they know it was you.

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Ringle said..

Ramona said..
Thunderbirds are go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...are go nowhere but on someone else's mooring.

It's a Thunderbird. Nice yacht from the sixties. The MSB have a fund that they use to dispose of abandoned boats. Not sure how long they have to wait but they will do a search for the owner first. Then the boats get lifted out on to the hardstanding for 3 months while they try to sell the boat. No joy there then out comes the chainsaw! All at taxpayers expense.

So I've got two theories as why it is there, the first is that it is a ghost ship that just randomly arrives at other peoples moorings, check out the name in the second photo! It's probably just waiting for SamSturdy to take off somewhere and it will move onto his mooring.

The other is that BristolFashion put it there just to prove a point about vacant moorings and then took off of for Tassie

That looks like a very fresh RMYC mooring sticker on the window. Tow it over to the RMYC mooring in Morning Bay and see how fast everyone finds the owner.

Hey...you leave me out of this. Anyway I think it's a lovely boat and Ringle should be proud that someone
thought his mooring sufficiently high status enough to leave it there.
Seriously though...I think EC31 has the right idea.but as Cisco said, the way things are set up these days,
whatever you do...you're liable.

The last time I saw one of these a beginner young couple had bought it and decided to set off for their first sail ever. It was a 15kt - 20kt sunny day with a bit of a chop and small white caps where the boat was moored near Palm Beach in Sydney. The wife went and cast off the mooring but unfortunately before the husband had got the outboard started! A classic. There was some furious yelling at the wife from the husband so she lunged half off the bow on her stomach and grabbed the tail end of the mooring line as the boat fast drifted off. At this point she didnt want to let it go (because of the irate man down the back ) so she held on to it until the boat had been blown back far enough that she slid further and further off until she was hanging onto boat with her feet hooked around the pulpit and her body hanging 1ft over the water holding on to a by then very tight mooring line Fortunately hubby chose her over the boat and ran up the front and pulled her on board. They then disappeared down the bay with him still pulling the outboard starter cord. Maybe that's where this one came from .....

I'm closing in. I rang a previous owner and he may look into it. I rang rmyc and they have on record a member who owned it but who has resigned his membership. Enough people close to it know now so we may flush him out yet. The maritime boating officer who is new to the role is onto it too.

What I can't understand is that he is already trespassing yet they say there is due process. If a car is parked illegally it gets towed straight away.

I'm closing in. I rang a previous owner and he may look into it. I rang rmyc and they have on record a member who owned it but who has resigned his membership. Enough people close to it know now so we may flush him out yet. The maritime boating officer who is new to the role is onto it too.

What I can't understand is that he is already trespassing yet they say there is due process. If a car is parked illegally it gets towed straight away.

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Wander66 said..
So I've got two theories as why it is there, the first is that it is a ghost ship that just randomly arrives at other peoples moorings, check out the name in the second photo! It's probably just waiting for SamSturdy to take off somewhere and it will move onto his mooring.

The other is that BristolFashion put it there just to prove a point about vacant moorings and then took off of for Tassie

Rats - you've rumbled me

The Phantom Mooring Filler
Aka Bristol

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Ringle said..
. If a car is parked illegally it gets towed straight away.

Yes & no. If it's parked out of the way they will happily put a defect sticker on it and go through the motions.

There's been a car with no plates on the grass verge near me but because it's not in a clearway or anything it's going through the motions. Been there two weeks now.

The grass verge is in front of a Mercedes dealership, so I bet they're not happy either!

Can i have the tender on top of the cabin pls?

:-)

Would be a good upgrade to what I have currently.

Thanks
Ed.

So can't they look up on the system to see which mooring it's supposed to be on? Or they already did that and it doesn't have a mooring?

There has been a bit of a quiet scam going on in Sydney Harbour for a while and it seems to have spread north.
People have a mooring minder and then finally the new shiny replacement arrives. Cant get rid of the minder, so it is 'sold' to a person who cant be traced. The purchase price (would you believe paid in cash!) was handed over and promptly banked. The paperwork is processed through RMS and all is legit, except the other half of the transaction seems to have got lost. The minder disappears for a little while, then suddenly appears on a vacant mooring when said mooring is left for a week or two. No one can find the new owner, the previous owners says, not my problem I sold it.
Not saying that is the case here, but there is a bit of a lingering smell......

A very helpful Maritime Boating Officer has rung me to say the boat will be moved this week.

I made a lot of calls to clubs, posts to this forum and calls to previous owners. I don't know whether this has helped the process but the call from Maritime was timely.

I don't think it is a mooring minder as the boat was full of fishing gear, a good outboard and a jumble of pots and pans. I think a dreamer bought it for nothing and thought grabbing a vacant mooring was a lark.

I had two occasions in the last year when first, a Sydney company called BOATASSIST hung a delapidated timber yacht on my mooring while l was criminally leaving my mooring unattended while sailing. It was witnessed by a resident.
It all happened near Gladesville Marina where there are a score of unoccupied red moorings ! ?

Secondly, just few weeks ago a stinkboat was parked on my mooring while l was thougtlessly sailing - and anchoring - around Pittwater.

In both cases - and l can not say it loud enough - the Water Police dealt with the peccant piece within hours while the RMS was dawdling around.

Water Police had efficiently removed the boat, freed my mooring and l could return to my property.

Sydney Water Police is excellent while RMS is not!

Thanks EC31, nice to fill in a few knowledge gaps for people to look out for. Also just occurred to me that the tender is still on the top of the boat, begs the question how they/they're got/getting on and off the boat in the first place. Maybe ,Cav30, they really don't need that nice tender after all and can accept your low-ball offer/payment when they can find you.

Timely thread. I went out to help a mate with his boat on the weekend and happened to go past my mooring( my boat is currently up north) and there was a boat on it. Thankfully i found the culpret, my mooring neighbour, he had heard through the seabreeze grape vine that i was away for a few more months. All good i just threw an opened tin of cat food on a nice fisher 32 thats nearby to keep the seagulls away from said mooring squatter. I still wonder why they dont nest on my boat

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oldboyracer said..
Timely thread. I went out to help a mate with his boat on the weekend and happened to go past my mooring( my boat is currently up north) and there was a boat on it. Thankfully i found the culpret, my mooring neighbour, he had heard through the seabreeze grape vine that i was away for a few more months. All good i just threw an opened tin of cat food on a nice fisher 32 thats nearby to keep the seagulls away from said mooring squatter. I still wonder why they dont nest on my boat

Problem is the guy with the nice Fisher is in here too