Yachts obscure view of Lady Liberty
Wealthy enough to own a mega-yacht but unwilling to pay for parking?
Just drop anchor next to the Statue of Liberty, and soak up the million-dollar views free.
That was the tactic of Russian-American oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, who anchored his 370-foot vessel, Le Grand Bleu, next to Lady Liberty for weeks at a time between April and June.
No sooner did he leave Liberty Bay than Swiss-Italian scion Ernesto Bertarelli parked his 318-foot Vava II in the same waters, followed by German billionaire Reinhold Würth in his relatively modest 280-foot Vibrant Curiosity this month.
The rich guy antics have obstructed views of the iconic monument and left tourists fuming.
A New Jersey state senator wants to clear the bay of parked mega-yachts for good.
“When Emma Lazarus wrote about America welcoming ‘your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’ it was not an invitation to billionaire oil tycoons to use the waters surrounding the Statue of Liberty as a parking lot for their yachts,” State Sen. Richard Codey said in a statement Friday. “It is unsafe for navigation, unfair to others and completely antithetical to the spirit of one of the world’s most compelling symbols of freedom and equal opportunity.”
Codey said he would introduce a resolution at the next Senate session, probably this fall, calling on the U.S. Coast Guard to ban boaters from anchoring long-term near Liberty Island.
The purpose, according to a draft of the resolution, is to “maintain the public’s ability to enjoy views of the monument and park and to protect against security risks.”
The measure does not define “long-term.”
A spokesman for the Coast Guard said Friday that white buoys prevent boats from anchoring within 100 feet of Liberty or Ellis Islands, but vessels can legally park outside that security zone, provided they don’t block traffic on the Hudson River.
The mega-yachts typically take advantage of a “nook” between Liberty and Ellis Islands, Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said, where the channel is deep and smaller boats have difficulty dropping anchor.
Changing the law would require public hearings and a consultation process, Strohmaier said.
“We can’t just put up a ‘ no parking ’ sign overnight,” he said.