What if someone has tied to your private mooring

[capngeo]

This guy has opened a new business for dealing with freeloaders

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Franziska

I really don't get that people do not try to find peaceful solutions first.

All those thoughts of loctite or cutting other people off or running to authorities don't speak well for a sailing community.

People who in exceptional circumstances use someone elses mooring should obviously leave only for short term and leave contact data on board though.

I agree with most of your post, but I don't see getting the authorities involved as a hostile thing. They can look up registration info and contact the vessel owner, find out any extenuating circumstances and help get things resolved according to "due process". It's their job (or should be). That way nobody needs to get emotional or angry-- nor property harmed.
Edit: They can also help you find a suitable alternate spot while things are worked out.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

... It is legally acceptable in most places, but a private mooring is tantamount to blocking off a parking space on a public road. It takes what was once a public space and effectively turns it into a private space. This is fundamentally unfair...

The fundamental contradiction of private property rights.
The extension of property protection to one person necessarily and inevitably
denies the same right to all others.

[rwidman]

Many of the replies mention a "harbormaster". In my part of the country, there are no harbormasters, it's everyone for him/herself. What then?

Damaging or cutting another person's boat loose is not a serious option. It's a crime.

[boatpoker]

I'm not a fan of mooring fields or even private moorings on public waterways but I respect the law. So I can live with government authorized moorings. What drives me nuts are the thousands of unauthorized mooring balls taking up anchorage space between North Carolina and Florida. These either sit empty for years or some local pirate is making a profit off of public property. Beaufort NC is one anchorage like that.

[barboak]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

I'm not a fan of mooring fields or even private moorings on public waterways but I respect the law. So I can live with government authorized moorings. What drives me nuts are the thousands of unauthorized mooring balls taking up anchorage space between North Carolina and Florida. These either sit empty for years or some local pirate is making a profit off of public property. Beaufort NC is one anchorage like that.

Another of my many pet peeves are the private moorings dropped all over the Caribbean also usually by boaters who are not even citizens of the island. I don't mind locals, especially fishermen, who have moorings or government ones in places like Deshaies, Guadalupe that make tight deep anchorages much better. We often anchor in Marigot, St. Martin which is pretty tight up front and there were (are) 2 moorings there "owned" by an American on a cat who is very rarely there, he also has a few in the lagoon also. He will come out once a season and tell anyone anchored near his moorings that they are too close and need to move! Now that pisses me off

[rwidman]

I once looked into the possibility of installing a mooring (in the USA) and the permit was twenty seven pages long. I suspect most of the moorings in my area are not permitted and probably a chain fastened to an old engine block.

We once had a sailboat drift up against our marina, mooring ball and all.

[barnakiel]

I would mark it as OP said 'private' and 'boat name'.

I would not lock mine. There may be a boat in emergency one day that may be forced to use it for a brief time. Or a guy in a small local boat that likes to fish there when I am gone. Or maybe a neighbour's mooring breakes and they want to catch ours before they fix their. Etc.

I do not thing locking it up is illegal but it is ugly.

b.

[Mithril Bham]

Some good ideas but what strikes me most is that the boating community has always been my refuge as a polite and helpful society. My first inclination would be that whoever was using my buoy had a good reason and proceed from there. Of course there are many exceptions to this rule. Unfortunately there are a few out there who don't deserve this respect and that should be dealt with by keelhauling.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Ironman162

The mooring becomes irrelevant under severe storm conditions.
You are better of not being there. I would concentrate on the storm and get my boat to a relatively safer position asap. Even hiding behind an island if possible but definately not tie it down...just my approach and Im sure there will be varying opinions... but I will stay with my boat and leave the one on the mooring to itself one boat is enough to handle in a !

Depending on location a good mooring can be the safest place. About the largest danger is someone drifting down on you that has used and engine block as an anchor. I feel sure some permitted fields regulate that.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

...What drives me nuts are the thousands of unauthorized mooring balls taking up anchorage space between North Carolina and Florida. These either sit empty for years or some local pirate is making a profit off of public property. Beaufort NC is one anchorage like that.

Originally Posted by barboak

Another of my many pet peeves are the private moorings dropped all over the Caribbean also usually by boaters who are not even citizens of the island. ...

THESE are the ones I’m really chafing against. Like I said, I accept that organized mooring fields can be a useful and positive thing in areas of high usages. I still prefer to hang from my own tackle, but I have used official moorings in tight areas.

What I dislike are when people (usually locals) drop a mooring in an anchorage that they commonly use, and do it in a way that effectively blocks boats from anchoring. I’ve seen areas in my recent cruising grounds (Bay of Quinte/Thousand Islands) where these private moorings have effectively bunged up previously open (and free) anchorages. Many of these moorings are lightly used, but they still manage to block many others from anchoring.

BTW, many PRIV moorings are placed appropriately. If you locate them off to the edge, to close to shore for safe anchoring, then that can be a good use of the space. It’s the ones who drop a PRIV mooring in the middle of an anchorage that I really have a beef with.

Originally Posted by GordMay

The fundamental contradiction of private property rights.
The extension of property protection to one person necessarily and inevitably
denies the same right to all others.

Too true. The argument in favour of converting public commons to private goods is that there is a net benefit to society in general. All too often those who espouse the sanctity of private property rights forget this explicit part of the deal.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Private moorings... even commercial ones placed in the harbor by marinas and yacht clubs and perhaps even towns are using the commons for private purposes. One might ask.... Who owns the land under the harbor and who has the right to use it commericially or otherwise... such as permanently moor a vessel?


SNIP

Ownership is established by the government.

As others have posted laws vary not only from country to country but in the US from state to state and even from locality to locality in Florida. While the federal government owns most of the land under the water the state of Florida owns a significant amount. Cities and counties also have legal ownership of some and a small, but significant in location, amount is owned by private persons or corporations.

From a legal standpoint using a mooring with out permission of the owner is trespass. The most obvious solution the owner of the mooring has is to remove the boat through the use of a service like Sea Tow. If the boat is truly in an emergency situation then the question is why was Sea Tow (who ever) was not contacted in the first place. If there is no emergency but the offending skipper is simply taking the first ball he sees and then abandons his boat to go about his business I have little sympathy for the skipper.

To a great extent this is what I call a first world problem. Over crowding and too little supply to meet the demand for suitable anchorages is much more common in places like South Florida (or other developed areas) than remote cruising areas. The result is the cost for balls or space to anchor is driven up. To make matters worse my experience has been that most of the folks who grab the first open ball often do so more to save money than due to an emergency.

Sad to say over the past more than 50 years I have been sailing the cost has skyrocketed and the number of folks who have a romantic idea that cruising/boating can be done on a shoestring budget has also skyrocketed. The result has been increasing conflict not just over mooring balls but access to other things as well.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

SNIP

Too true. The argument in favour of converting public commons to private goods is that there is a net benefit to society in general. All too often those who espouse the sanctity of private property rights forget this explicit part of the deal.

Some years ago I did some legal work for the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. It related to trading some submerged land close to the ICW near Jacksonville for land well inland. The thing was the land was being used as a dump for autos and unusable batteries and DER wanted to clean up the dump.

While this trade did provide a net benefit to society (the chemicals in the batteries were leaking into the ground water) it did limit places where boaters could freely anchor.

Too often we view things too narrowly and forget others may have a different view.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

Ironman and Cadence, probably Franziska too,- where are your own vessels kept while your mooring, dock, etc. are occupied by "guest" boats belonging to or at least operated by unknown and unavailable persons?

Perhaps you would share the exact locations of your facilities and the alternates so the users of this Forum could partake if they desired while in the area.

Get off the high horse. Obviously we are not speaking of derelicts or a regular thing. Are you afraid you might meet someone nice? If it is a well kept boat someone will be back shortly.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by tomfl

From a legal standpoint using a mooring with out permission of the owner is trespass. The most obvious solution the owner of the mooring has is to remove the boat through the use of a service like Sea Tow.

Do you include unauthorized (illegal) mooring balls in this standpoint ?