M/Y Top Gun dumps garbage in the Exuma Park, caught on camera

[GordMay]

Different crown, but the same crime.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by lboatbookings

On behalf of everyone at Boatbookings, we would like to clarify that we are a yacht charter company and therefore do not have anything to do with M/Y TOP GUN, her crew or her owners. We do not condone the acts described here in this thread.

But you do broker charters for them, right?

[jewt]

Exuma Park has very strict rules about garbage, collecting shells, and anchoring. They would Not take kindly to anyone dumping trash!

jewt

S/V Bifrost New Bern, NC

[lboatbookings]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

But you do broker charters for them, right?

Hi BelizeSailor, we can confirm that Boatbookings have never had a charter on this yacht.

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by SuW

Well, that's not quite true, is it?

In my experience, the place that was worst for roadside garbage was Portugal. Crazy piles of rubbish everywhere in the Algarve, even in fairly uninhabited areas out of town. I'd never seen anything like it, and I lived in England which is known for roadside "fly-tipping".

Or try Appalachia. In areas where income is low and they charge for access to the landfill, the roads are strewn with garbage, especially the roads leading to the landfills. A great example of bad social policy - giving people a strong incentive to do the wrong thing...

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Is this the same boat?

https://www.boatbookings.com/yacht_s....php?pid=29789

Ah, I see the page refered to by this link, which did originally contain images of the same Top Gun, has been removed and replaced with a disclaimer.

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by sailingchiro

If nothing else, I bet everyone on these forums will think twice about dumping trash in anything but a trash can. Especially in the Exumas.

And this as well - I have often anguished about the guys who zoom around anchorages collecting trash for $ (and also selling stuff, which is fine). I worry a lot about where that trash actually ends up. Some cruising guides make reference to the issue in a few anchorages, that the guys just throw it by the side of the road or in the bushes, but most don't and I am left to wonder. If I had my wish, I would rather pay the guys to take it for me - it is a fine way to put some $ into the local economy. But, I often take it myself because I can know that it was properly deposited.

Would love to hear how other forum members think about this.

[RenegadeBI]

I would certainly hope that no member of this forum would EVER do such a thing. Few things disgust me as much as littering. I hope the bastards get their due.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by lestersails

And this as well - I have often anguished about the guys who zoom around anchorages collecting trash for $ (and also selling stuff, which is fine). I worry a lot about where that trash actually ends up. Some cruising guides make reference to the issue in a few anchorages, that the guys just throw it by the side of the road or in the bushes, but most don't and I am left to wonder. If I had my wish, I would rather pay the guys to take it for me - it is a fine way to put some $ into the local economy. But, I often take it myself because I can know that it was properly deposited.

Would love to hear how other forum members think about this.

Its a mix I think. I know places where the trash bag just goes into the sea or dumped on land, but some where it is disposed of properly.

One island in the San Blas takes trash from cruisers and burns it with theirs...not the best option, but at least they dont toss it in the sea.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by lestersails

And this as well - I have often anguished about the guys who zoom around anchorages collecting trash for $ (and also selling stuff, which is fine). I worry a lot about where that trash actually ends up. Some cruising guides make reference to the issue in a few anchorages, that the guys just throw it by the side of the road or in the bushes, but most don't and I am left to wonder. If I had my wish, I would rather pay the guys to take it for me - it is a fine way to put some $ into the local economy. But, I often take it myself because I can know that it was properly deposited.



Would love to hear how other forum members think about this.

I have heard often it goes into the Mangroves.
I won’t give it to them, I’ll pay the kid at the dinghy dock a couple of bucks to carry it to dumpster 100 feet away, cause I know then it went into the trash, cause I could watch.
As far as burning it, it’s about all you can do on an island.
1st world countries apparently used to ship it to China, God knows what they did with it, but they aren’t taking it anymore.
Urban legend was that NY City used to carry barge loads out to sea and dump it, may still for all I know.
I hate plastic, most of it could be gotten rid of with no issue.

I love when people say they threw it “away”
Where is this away place?
Same people think that electricity is an unlimited resource, it just flows from the wall.

[Lost Horizons]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Urban legend was that NY City used to carry barge loads out to sea and dump it, may still for all I know.

It is not an urban legend. I saw those barges on East River with my own eyes when I lived in Manhattan in 1991. They stopped doing it in 1992.

[Tellie]

Urgent Notice re: M/Y TOP GUN

Notice on Behalf of Boatbookings

It has come to our attention that a link to our site was posted on a forum regarding the motor yacht Top Gun. We would like to clarify that we are a yacht charter company and therefore do not have anything to do with M/Y TOP GUN, her crew, her owners nor their actions.




As Momma always said "There are always two sides to a story"

[rpjn59]

I dont know if they still do it, but in the '70s and '80s the U.S.Navy used to throw all their trash, at least when crossing oceans, into the sea. We would then use the floating bags for small arms target practice.

P.S. it wasnt easy hitting them with bag moving in the waves and ship pitching.

[Brian2109]

Same boat? http://www.miamifivestar.com/yacht-rentals/82-sunseeker-top-gun.html

[hellosailor]

"Alexander Hamilton originated the Revenue Cutter Service as the military arm of the Treasury Department in order to stop smuggling (in 1790), so it's ALWAYS been a military agency."

Not quite, Bill. The "military arm" that Hamilton may have intended was one of many federal agencies borged into what is now the USCG. Which, last time I heard, had been placed under the routine peacetime control of the Department of Homeland Security, which is an administrative agency, not a military arm or anything.

The USCG has traditionally had a formal dual role, in that they are authorized and empowered to be a a military arm, under the control of the War Department (excuse me, Defense Department, we haven't formally been at war since the 1940's) and until and unless Congress formally declares war, as only they are authorized to do, the USCG remains an administrative agency, a civil branch of government, no matter who claims what color of law otherwise.

Unless you've got some citation that says the US is currently in a formal state of War, or showing the USCG has been seconded to the DoD instead of DHS?

CSY-
I know some creative LEOs who would go through that pile of garbage, if it were here in the US, and then issue a separate citation for each piece of it. One orange peel, torn into 28 pieces? 28 citations. By the time they got through with the pile, they could issue a warrant for a rest of the boat and a lien for everything on it.
Kinda like a fellow in NY who made the mistake of lobstering without a permit when the NYS DEC was having an enforcement campaign. The nice officer left him standing in a parking lot, in his underwear, with his house keys. Everything else got confiscated as "used during the commission of..." including his garments and car. Word got around fast that year.