Recently, the San Mateo County Harbor District has declared vessels legally abandoned at both Pillar Point and Oyster Point harbors and has taken steps to have them removed. A total of 12 sea craft — three at Pillar Point and nine at Oyster Point — are to be towed out, demolished and disposed of in the Ox Mountain Landfill.
Abandoned vessels, in such disrepair they are not sea-worthy nor easily sold, are removed from the harbor each year as part of regular district operations.
 Harbormaster Dan Temko walks down the dock in the Pillar Point Harbor near an old abandoned sailboat, one of three dilapidated boats that will removed from the harbor. |
Two of the three boats declared abandoned at Pillar Point this year have been there for about three years, Draper said. The other boat has been there about one year.
“I’ve put roughly 30 boats in Dumpsters in the last few years,” Oyster Point Harbormaster Robert Johnson said. “A lot of boats are dying these days ... it’s unfortunate that people don’t take responsibility for their vessels.”
Despite the carelessness of some boat owners, harbor districts cannot simply stake claim to a neglected watercraft, poke holes in the hull and relinquish it to Davy Jones’ Locker — not legally, anyway.
There are precise measures undertaken by harbor districts to remove and dispose of derelict vessels. The declaration of abandonment alone is a process involving a number of variables and technicalities, the least of which is not the mandatory 30-day waiting period. There is also paperwork to complete at the DMV.
Legal declaration of abandonment “depends on a variety of factors,” Pillar Point Harbormaster Dan Temko said. “Basically, if (the vessel) is left for 30 days on state tidelands without a watchman, and (the owner is) not paying rent for it, it’s considered abandoned.” Temko went on to say that though a vessel might be considered abandoned by harbor folk, the procedure to legally seize the vessel and declare it abandoned can take up to four months.
“If the owners have no money left and they have no resources, they get into financial situations when they can’t be held responsible,” Johnson said. “That’s when (the boats) get declared abandoned.”
“Generally, we work very hard to make the owners responsible,” Temko said. “We’ll ticket them, we’ve gone to collection agencies, but when the (owner) walks away from the boat, I’m still left with it.”
Disposing of abandoned boats properly can be a costly and complex process, requiring specialized treatment. Harbor officials must consider the potentially damaging substances aboard, including oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, lead-based paint and varnish.
“We hire a contractor to do (the demolition),” Draper said. “They have to deal with all the hazardous waste on them. You can’t put that in the landfill, so they have to remove all of it first — all the items that can be recycled get recycled. Then they either crush them up or tow them on trailers and take them to Ox Mountain.”
This management process is expensive, which is why the California Department of Boating and Waterways created the Abandoned Watercraft Abatement Fund in 1997. The grant has an annual $1 million budget which is made available to harbors as compensation for removal, storage and disposal costs.
“In the past five years, the program has funded the removal of 577 watercraft throughout the state,” Department of Boating and Waterways Public Information Officer Gloria Sandoval said. “Right now what’s going on, Assembly Bill 1950 was passed, the idea behind it being to create a turn-in program to allow boaters to surrender their vessels to a willing agency free of charge.”
Both Pillar Point and Oyster Point harbors have applied for AWAF grants and were awarded a total of $53,900 to dispose of the 12 abandoned vessels.
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