Derelict boats pose ‘increasing problem’
Derelict boats are causing headaches for authorities, with three removed from coastal Tasman waters over summer.
Tasman District Council regulatory services manager Adrian Humphries on Thursday told the elected members on the regulatory committee that one was a 50-foot steel launch that someone bought online ‘‘because it looked like a great asset’’. He believed the launch was purchased for $1.
The new owner was required to remove his purchase from the water under the Maritime Transport Act.
‘‘This vessel was lifted out of the water at Motueka and then water blasted,’’ Humphries said in a report.
The water blaster ‘‘went through the hull plating in several places’’, meaning the boat had been at imminent risk of sinking.
‘‘Sadly, it seems to be an increasing problem that people are abandoning their boats, probably due to the increasing costs of ownership (and the increasing age of the owners),’’ Humphries said.
Deputy mayor Stuart Bryant asked what lengths the council went to, to ensure derelict boats were disposed of properly. Humphries said the harbourmaster team ‘‘know just about every derelict boat in the district intimately’’ and the identity of the owners.
‘‘If we don’t know the owners, we then have to make a call on whether we are going to dispose of it ourselves,’’ he said. He believed the owners had always been found.
‘‘Amazingly, a lot of these boats, which are completely derelict already, get sold for $1 [online], which is a worry because you still have a derelict boat, but it is just owned by somebody else.’’
In such cases, the harbourmaster team worked with the new owner and explained the boat could not be left in the water and ‘‘we do ensure they are removed, or they are taken to the recycling facility and disposed of there’’. Some boats were taken to other regions, ‘‘which isn’t ideal but we then try to inform local harbourmasters’’.
‘‘So far as the safety element goes, we do as much as we can to ensure that these vessels are not used but people can go to sea in a bathtub if they wish.’’
Meanwhile, quick work by Humphries and the harbourmaster team prevented environmental damage after the fishing boat Scorpio ran aground off Farewell Spit in late April.
They pumped the fuel out of the day tank and blocked all the breathers to make sure it wasn’t leaking fuel.
‘‘It had over 1000 litres of diesel on board.’’ The hydraulic oil was also removed. There had been a small spill ‘‘because one of the hydraulic lines snapped rolling on the waves’’.