Abandoned Boats Voyage From Davis Islands To Landfill

At one time, this bright red sailboat was someone's pride and joy.

A sleek 30-footer with a comfy cabin and Fiberglas hull, this vessel would be perfect for sailing Tampa Bay on a sunny day or even an overnight trip into the Gulf.

Today, the rotting, barnacle encrusted heap was unceremoniously hauled out of the water, with stagnant, smelly water dripping and crabs falling from its keel. The unforgiving steel bucket of a front-end loader crushed it and then dropped the jagged remains into a dump truck.

The boat's final voyage: across town to a landfill.

The fate of the unnamed vessel was shared by three other derelict and abandoned boats in the Davis Islands Seaplane Basin today. City crews spotted, identified and hauled out of the water four boats deemed a threat to other boats and the occasional seaplane.

Two of the boats had sunk and sat just beneath the surface of the water, including a 45-foot houseboat. Tampa Police Department Sgt. Alan Draffin said divers were going to place inflatable rigs around the sunken boats to float them free of the muck and to the surface.

"They are very much stuck in the muck," he said. Getting them to the surface can be tricky. If they fall apart, the recovery takes longer.

He said the boats have been there for years.

"We tried to find out who they belong to," he said. "We have no idea."

The removal was expected to last most of the day and possibly into tomorrow, he said.

Containment booms were to be positioned around them to keep any fuel or contaminants onboard from spreading throughout the basin, where hundreds of boats are moored in open water and at the nearby marina.

About every three or four months, police take a look at the vessels in the basin to see whether any appear to be abandoned or derelict, Draffin said.

If they meet the criteria -- inoperable, haven't moved, are a danger to navigation or hazard to the environment -- they are tagged for removal, he said.

One of the largest vessels removed in the past few years was a 52-foot cabin cruiser, said Tampa Officer Luis Vazquez, a member of the department's dive team. He said that if boats can be traced to owners, they can be charged removal fees or even charged with illegal dumping.

In the end, it comes down to legal dumping.

The red sailboat was hoisted by a crane, and crews tried to put the entire vessel in a dump truck. It didn't fit.

So the boat was dropped on the pavement near the boat ramp and crunched beneath the bucket of the front-end loader.

It's better to break it up than to take the chance of losing it on the way to the dump, Draffin said.

"That would stink -- if somewhere along Kennedy Boulevard, this thing splatters all along the road."