MacGregorSailors.com

From today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01boats.html

Lloyd,

I read that this morning also. Maybe you should change your posting to "Bad Time For Boat Owners, And Everyone Else".

Ray

The picture at the top of the story looked like a pretty nice boat!!

Rick

Another benefit of a trailer sailor...... when it comes time to abandon the boat..... just drive it down the road and drop it off.

Seriously, I don't understand why anyone would just abandon the boat. Sell it for a $1.00, someone would buy it, I would think. If not, don’t just drill a hole in the boat to sink it, be more creative than that. Crash into the rocky coast, knock out a thru hull fitting, something not so obvious.

My my, are we devious

Ray

ha...

I read the story, too.. there was "insurance" involved... not a pure matter of giving a boat away..

--jr

My lord. Someone could make killing on this. I would gladly pay a nominal fee to assume ownership of a boat in decent shape. If these states would then turn around a sell the title for another $500 they could double the revenue stream. I'd gladly store a nice 40 footer or that cat until I was retired from the army.

I can't imagine just cutting a boat loose instead of dropping the price to something ridiculous to get rid of it in a hurry.

This was featured on a news show last night also. Seems to be epidemic in the south.I think the problem is not enough potential buyers,even at ridiculous prices,to buy all the "fixer uppers" out there,so,to stop the pain of slips,moorings etc,the boats just go away.
I had a friend who was sold a sailboat for a dollar. The dollar was really a formality,so it wouldn't be free.

After hearing his description of the boat-I think the guy with the dollar came out ahead!

There is a guy in our marina that has a very beat up party type pontoon boat. It's the kind that has a kitchen and sleeping quarters. Every inch of the thing is damaged, the roof, pontoons, seats, I mean everything. The guy visited his boat once in the last three years, and I was there, so I asked him how much he wanted for it (it had a 4 stroke 60 Merc that I was eyeing). Anyway the bozo tells me he "would take" $9K as is. I kind of laughed and asked if he was serious and he tells me that, that is how much he owes the bank. Bought it new in 1998 for $22k and still owes $9K on it. I talked to the marina owners and they said that the bank came by and looked at the boat and refused to repossess the thing because they would just have to pay to have it hauled and scrapped. So, they filed suit against the owner. The marina owners want it gone, the tenants want it gone, the owner claims it belongs to the bank and the bank doesn't want it. No one wants to pay to have it hauled away and everybody denies ownership. I tried to find out what bank was involved and no one knows for sure, only the owner, and he will not speak to anyone. You just have to wonder, how did we ever get to this point? A 10 year old boat that cost $22K and no one wants it. We are living some very strange times!

Pat

It happens. Our most recent marina has a clause in the contract about what they will do with the boat if it's not kept up and rent paid. However, it assumed you owned the boat, not the bank. They had several rather nice boats like Pearsons, Odays, Jboats, etc. up on blocks on the hard but couldn't get rid of them at auction because the title chase got nowhere.

The dollar was really a formality,so it wouldn't be free.

Consideration methinks - (from hanging out in Law school)

perhaps if you gave it to someone, then it is valued as a gift - and a good deal of value... sell it - and the title can transfer.. more than just a dollar, I think...

--jr

Its actually a legal issue that a transaction for a 0 monetary value isnt a legal transaction at all...ever notice when you transact a deed to a house it is usually in consideration of 1 dollar US??