Sailboat in the surf near San Francisco

[boatman61]

Maybe the guys should have looked at clause 17, sub-section 13...
You wreck it... you stole it...
Mate of mine used to say that every time I borrowed his car...

[fstbttms]

(03-04) 14:13 PST PACIFICA -- Two men and a woman packed pizza and beer aboard a luxury sailboat in a Sausalito marina, stole it in the middle of the night and made it as far as Pacifica before the vessel ran aground 20 yards off a beach Monday, authorities said.
The three then spent hours being tossed about in the waves in the 82-foot Darling as authorities, alerted to the theft by a man who recognized his boat on the TV news, waited with guns drawn on the beach.
The three suspects, showing signs of queasiness, were pulled off the boat onto jet-skis by San Mateo County sheriff's deputies about noon and transferred to the custody of Pacifica police on Linda Mar Beach.
All three were arrested on suspicion of possession of a stolen boat, said Pacifica police Capt. Joe Spanheimer. They were not immediately identified.
When they boarded the Darling, authorities found cases of beer, pale ale and a pizza box, said Jeff Wadkins, a state parks lifeguard and park ranger who was one of those to scour the vessel. "There looks like there was quite a bit of alcohol drinking onboard," he said.
The contents of the boat were in disarray, including knocked-over shelves, apparently because of the rough surf, Wadkins said, and the three suspects showed signs of seasickness.
One of the men limped, apparently because he uses a prosthetic leg.
The focus will now turn to trying to remove the boat before it breaks apart, said Eric Laughlin, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. There were no immediate signs of any oil spill, Laughlin said.
"Right now, the boat seems to be staying together, which is good news," Laughlin said.
Rescue crews headed to the beach before dawn as the first hint of daylight revealed the Darling, stuck in the shallows.
Before authorities realized the boat had been stolen, a Coast Guard swimmer was lowered from a helicopter and delivered a radio to the people onboard.
The vessel's owner was watching news coverage of the incident, took a hard look at the boat bobbing in the waves and realized it was his, said Sausalito police Sgt. Bill Fraass.
"He had the TV on when he realized that his boat had been taken and called us," Fraass said.
The owner, John Fruth, was in a parking lot on the Pacifica beach when the suspects were taken off his boat. He declined to comment.
The boat, built by English builders Oyster Marine, has sailed around the world, according to an online description. Police believe the boat was stolen from the Sausalito Yacht Harbor sometime around 1 a.m. Monday.
The three people onboard initially refused the Coast Guard's assistance, said Petty Officer Tom McKenzie, a Coast Guard spokesman. Once they discovered the boat had been stolen, Pacifica police officers joined the Coast Guard and local fire department on the beach.
Officers stood on shore with their guns drawn a little before 11 a.m. and used a megaphone on a police SUV to order those onboard to leave the boat's cabin and step onto the deck. The three were taken off the boat an hour later.


San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Henry K. Lee contributed to this report.
Will Kane and Vivian Ho are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: wkane@sfchronicle.com, vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WillKane, @VivianHo


Read more: http://www.sfgate.co...p#ixzz2McAOZAy2

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

A little kid getting shot and killed in a drive-by shooting is intensely sad. This is merely a potential headache for a very wealthy boat owner, IMHO. But maybe that's just me.

Yes that is the way you see it, you clean bottoms for rich owners. Many however hate to see a yacht being treated this way, call a yacht "she" and certainly don't want no guy with scraper cleaning her bottom

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Many however hate to see a yacht being treated this way, call a yacht "she" and certainly don't want no guy with scraper cleaning her bottom

It's a beautiful boat and if she is destroyed (unlikely, IMHO) it would be a shame, nothing more. You and your buddy have some screwed-up priorities if you think this is any kind of tragedy.

And I don't know how you are accustomed to having your boat bottom maintained, but this diver doesn't use a scraper to clean his boat owner's hulls.

Forum Version Hull Cleaning Hunter 41 Part 1 1.6.11.MP4 - YouTube

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by Pete7

FFS how far did they think they would get in a 82ft Oyster? like you could just hide it somewhere in a small marina

They wouldn't have gotten away with it. The idiots stole a boat that was continuously broadcasting its position on AIS.

See the AIS track here: Google Maps APRS

[Cpt Pat]

Things to do before stealing an expensive sailboat:

1) Learn how to sail.
2) Find the on/off switch for the AIS transponder.

[mikereed100]

fstbttms,

Who is that singing in the background? I've been playing your vid for the tunes, my wife asking why I'm watching a video of some dude cleaning a boat when I should be cleaning ours.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by mikereed100

fstbttms,

Who is that singing in the background? I've been playing your vid for the tunes, my wife asking why I'm watching a video of some dude cleaning a boat when I should be cleaning ours.

Sashamon

S A S H A M O N - one day maybe

[GeoPowers]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

(03-04) 14:13 PST PACIFICA -- Two men and a woman packed pizza and beer aboard a luxury sailboat in a Sausalito marina, stole it in the middle of the night and made it as far as Pacifica...
....All three were arrested on suspicion of possession of a stolen boat, said Pacifica police Capt. Joe Spanheimer....
....authorities found cases of beer, pale ale...."There looks like there was quite a bit of alcohol drinking onboard," he said.
...The contents of the boat were in disarray...
...One of the men limped, apparently because he uses a prosthetic leg...

Thar be PIRATES over there!

No how bad my day is, the guy watching his 82 ft Oyster washed up on shore with a trio of drunken idiots on live TV totally takes the cake.

Frank

[nagrom snoyl]

bring back keel hauling for them feckers that stole that boat, mind you there wont be enough barnacles on her bottom to make it painfull

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Bash

It is sad. Last summer we have a delivery crew bring an Oyster 65 down from the PNW, and it stopped in our marina to wait until the end of hurricane season before heading south. Everyone thought it was the most beautiful boat imaginable. Then, two weeks later the Oyster 82, Darling, took the slip next to the 65. At that point, we couldn't even see the 65, not just because the new boat was so huge, but because it was exponentially more dazzling.

So much for my view. I imagine it's going to be a long time before Darling finds herself a new keel, assuming she makes it off the beach intact.

What kind of security does your marina have? A bunch of derelicts with pizza and beer in hand would have a hard time boarding an 80' boat at 1am in my marina...

[David M]

I don't know if it is a good thing or not that only morons would try something like this. If they had not been morons then the boat might not be on the beach.

I would like to know what their plans were.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

Things to do before stealing an expensive sailboat:

1) Learn how to sail.
2) Find the on/off switch for the AIS transponder.

3) Learn to navigate.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by minaret

What kind of security does your marina have? A bunch of derelicts with pizza and beer in hand would have a hard time boarding an 80' boat at 1am in my marina...

It's an old boardwalk-style marina, at least where that boat was. Gets a huge amount of tourist traffic. There's a narrow ramp down to each finger pier from the boardwalk itself. Most of us put a little chain across the top of the ramp, and some actually add a "private" sign as well. That's about it as far as security.

This marina was built in the 1930's, and I've never heard of a boat being stolen before. Lots of high-end boats, but it's very "sausalito." It's the kind of place where, if you demanded better security, the harbor master would give you a list of gated marinas and tell you to get lost.

[shorebird]

Man, you just can't make this stuff up. The scouts for the TV show "World's Stupidest
Criminals" must be salivating like Pavlov's dog.