The authors of a local cruising guide saw a chartered houseboat attached to a mooring buoy(no surprise there), except the buoy was not attached to a mooring apparatus. I suppose the constant drifting eventually told them something was wrong.I find it, I guess amusing is the word... people who are blithely content to attach their boat to any old random thing floating in the harbor...
Keep your cotton pickin' hands off me! (KYCPHOM?)
We had permission to use the mooring and had done so several times in the past but this time we had a friend raft up to us and then the wind and waves came up.
Bottom line is we snapped the mooring chain which happened during the day when we were on our boats so we were able to motor out of danger just as we were being blown into shallow water. We retained the mooring ball and took it to the island and got the owner's name and number from the caretaker and let him know what we'd done.
My wife and I paid to have the mooring repaired which involved a diver, new chain, etc.
My power cord comes with me because I need it at the next dock. Home dock lines stay put as does the water hose.
Once left a hose, but it wasn't there on my return.
"If you feel it reasonable to tie up to my privately maintained mooring then I assume that you will feel it equally reasonable for me to occupy your boat while it is there."
Hardly , most folks moor on property they do not own or rent , so use by other Pilgrims is the norm, worldwide.
The solution is the banning of all non-approved and not paid for moorings. Have minimal. fair and balanced, rates for sanctioned ones)
If one is placed without permit..anyone can tie to it or remove it...no questions asked.
sounds pretty simple to me.
Here you need a place specific license from Maritime to lay mooring apparatus. Maritime patrol mooring areas so unauthorized ones won`t last long. The license is boat specific, and vacancy > 6 weeks is not allowed.I'm conflicted over the whole mooring thing. One of the oldest rules of the sea is to leave other people's stuff alone, except..
In Maine, there is a consensus developing that you can pick up a destination mooring at will, and move to another if the owner shows up. Mid-week, this system works fine. On nice weekends, it can become a problem...
The 9th would have tried to sue the owner for failing to properly maintain sotmething he wasn't prevented from using.
My power cord comes with me because I need it at the next dock. Home dock lines stay put as does the water hose.
If one is placed without permit..anyone can tie to it or remove it...no questions asked.
sounds pretty simple to me.
Do not apply this reasoning to lobster/crab pots. Get yourself killed.
That's a separate issue....probably more important because of making a living issue.
Some places there is strict regulation of placement of crab pots. The crabbers are well out numbered and probably just as fearful of boaters as the other way around.
Sorry, didn't make my point clearly, as it is the same thing. Many lobster/crab pots are not "commercial," but that doesn't matter either. The point is, appropriating to yourself the fruit of someone else's effort/stuff, is a tricky business, regardless of your justifications.
A different example. After a heavy snowstorm, someone shovels a parking space. Feeling entitled to their labor, they put a lawn chair in the space to "save" it. Someone else comes along, needs to park, figures the lawn chair placer does not "own" the space, and isn’t parked there anyway, so moves the chair and parks. When the shoveler returns, hard feelings and sometimes real ugliness ensues.
I would always try to find someone local to tell me what the local custom is, and I would abide by the local custom whether I agreed with it or not (absent emergency).