Stolen mooring - what can be done?

[SHUG]

Basic question: Was it a registered mooring in a designated mooring area with proper licensing from the Crown Comissioners and the appropriate fee (about £40) paid and an assigned number and identification tag? If so it can be identified as "your"mooring. If it was then your friend may be able to establish ownership and get his mooring back.

If not, then an enterprising fisherman has found some useful unidentified (forget about the name on the mooring buoy, that counts for nothing) junk to moor up his boat.
I'm sorry to be negative but unless it was a properly licensed mooring there is little chance of recovery.

 

[bedouin]

I think the Police will have to act if you can show proof of criminal damage - proof that is, not just hearsay. I'm surprised this wasn't the first port of call. Give them a try first. What's to lose? Damage and removal of several hundreds of pounds worth of chain is no small matter.

Name and shame is a good plan, as is the video idea, but Write an article for the local newspaper(s) with pics of the fishing boat in question.

Aren't fishing boats registered? Would the registry be interested in a crooked boat?

I'm afraid there is zero chance of being able to prove criminal damage or theft unless you can find him in possession of the chain that was removed and prove that it was the identical chain - which is virtually impossible.

 

[Birdie]

I would suggest speaking with this person on a friendly level, keeping calm, advise him its your mooring and need it back in the next couple of weeks and also ask if has seen 30M of chain as it appears that someone has had it away. You can then judge for yourself what you are dealing with, he may have thought it was abandoned?

 

[mickywillis]

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you know the mooring chain has been cut? Have you been out to look at the mooring since your "visitor" arrived to measure it?
TBH the guy on it is a bit of a plonker really. How does he know the mooring will support his boat. I mean if a shackle or link failed, he'd lose the boat!
Are there any names, numbers, SSR numbers, etc on the boat? If an SSR number, then surely you could trace the owner?
From the OP's original post "others who have met or know the person with the fishing boat" indicates that people around DO know the character concerned. Can you not find out from them who this character is?

 

[Lakesailor]

Basic question: Was it a registered mooring in a designated mooring area with proper licensing from the Crown Comissioners and the appropriate fee (about £40) paid and an assigned number and identification tag?

I would suggest speaking with this person on a friendly level, keeping calm, advise him its your mooring and need it back in the next couple of weeks and also ask if has seen 30M of chain as it appears that someone has had it away. You can then judge for yourself what you are dealing with, he may have thought it was abandoned?

I suspect neither of you have actually read the thread.

 

[Seajet]

Will you please stop generalising. I have never made any remarks about yachtsmen in general, despite having had a few less than edifying experiences.

Fisherman,

you're right I was generalising, and I have always found you a decent guy !

However my experience with other fishermen has not been so happy; bullying behaviour, deliberately speeding past leaving a wash early in the morning at Poole & Weymouth " that'll wake up them yotties ! " crashing into my boat and damaging her then clearing off when I was ashore, stealing a club mooring and leaving crab pots just under the surface, leaving a trail of dead seagulls blasted by shotgun...

I know you are not that sort, but it has always embarassed me that fishermen in ' poorer ' countries keep their boats in tip top condition, their pride & joy, but British fishing boats are usually rust buckets !

 

[ghostlymoron]

I think rhetorically suggestion that British fishing boats are rust buckets and fishermen are lazy is unfair to them. A fishing boat is a working vessel and has to pay it's way. Fishermen do not have time for prettying up their boats in the way that some yachties do.

 

[Seajet]

So how come fishing boats in places like France, Portugal, South America etc are immaculately treated as pride & joy ?!

 

[bedouin]

So how come fishing boats in places like France, Portugal, South America etc are immaculately treated as pride & joy ?!

Probably got an EU grant to scrap the old one and then another EU grant to build a new one

 

[SHUG]

I suspect neither of you have actually read the thread.

Well, that was helpful and informative!!!!

 

[Birdie]

Originally Posted by Lakesailor

I suspect neither of you have actually read the thread.


MMmm struggling with this quoting malarky.

Lakesailor, perhaps you could expand on your useful comment and show us the error of our ways? Maybe you could tell us exactly what you would do in these circumstances?

 

[Birdseye]

The reason is that you are fed up of some git pinching your mooring. If he asks, that's what you need to tell him.

And if he is 6ft 4in built like a brick privvy and with attitude - what then? I had an incident with a fisherman once. He reversed off the quay at Ilfracombe and into the side of my boat which was on the harbours official visitor mooring. Quite frightening to be honest but when I asked the fisherman where to send the bill for the danmage he had done, he completely lost it, literally jumping up and down on the stern of his boat, demanding that I go ashore when he would sort me out etc. Some low life scum are like that. I dont for a minute think that all fishermen are like that. Indeed from posts even on this thread it seems that some people ( morons?) think the only solution to a problem is violence

Fisherman, you're right I was generalising, and I have always found you a decent guy !

However my experience with other fishermen has not been so happy; bullying behaviour, deliberately speeding past leaving a wash early in the morning at Poole & Weymouth " that'll wake up them yotties ! " crashing into my boat and damaging her then clearing off when I was ashore, stealing a club mooring and leaving crab pots just under the surface, leaving a trail of dead seagulls blasted by shotgun...

!

Sound man!

 

[ghostlymoron]

Well, that was helpful and informative!!!!

And correct.
The answers to both your questions were contained in the OP.
The mooring is not under any jurisdiction and the mooring stealer told the OP to f**k off when approached.
Pay attention at the back!

 

[Birdie]

And correct.
The answers to both your questions were contained in the OP.
The mooring is not under any jurisdiction and the mooring stealer told the OP to f**k off when approached.
Pay attention at the back!

Not quite ghostlymoron, the original post says that another boat owner approached him and was told to f**k off, as far as I can see, the owner has not spoken with the 'squatter'..........pay attention where ever you are!

 

[rptb1]

If he has deprived you of your mooring and destroyed your property then you should be able to bring a civil suit against him for damages, whether or not the police and CPS want to get involved for criminal damage. At the very least he would have to pay for a new mooring for you. But you might find that the thread of being sued is enough to get him to quit.

If you're worried about retaliation then I suggest a recording camera on the shore pointing at the mooring might be worthwhile, though I suspect the police might be more interested at that point.

 

[Lakesailor]

Basic question: Was it a registered mooring in a designated mooring area with proper licensing from the Crown Comissioners and the appropriate fee (about £40) paid and an assigned number and identification tag? If so it can be identified as "your"mooring. If it was then your friend may be able to establish ownership and get his mooring back.

If not, then an enterprising fisherman has found some useful unidentified (forget about the name on the mooring buoy, that counts for nothing) junk to moor up his boat.
I'm sorry to be negative but unless it was a properly licensed mooring there is little chance of recovery.

Your question had been answered many posts earlier by the OP so if you don't know the answer to your own question then we must assume you haven't read the thread

Thanks for all the advice so far. Please keep it coming so we can consider all options.
Just a little more info:
Its a private mooring, so no harbour master, also no crown estate involvement.
We don't intend to break the law ourselves, or cause any damage to property, so although the suggestions involving hand drills, cutting loose, acid, getting 'the boys' involved etc were gratefully received and very entertaining we will most likely not be following through.
We don't know the identity of the person and my feeling is that it will probably be seen as too much work for the police, although I will suggest my friend takes this route initially as there is a clear case of criminal damage.
I especially like the idea of sinking the mooring while the guy is out on his boat so he has no mooring buoy to return to. Its elegant and a bit of a poke in the eye, without actually causing damage. My friends boat is likely to remain on shore for some time so we wont need to retrieve the mooring for at least a month, probably more, by which time the bloke will hopefully have forgotten to some extent. Only problems are actually being lucky enough to catch him while he's away from the mooring, it won't return the 30M of chain to the 60M we started with, and there's still the chance the bloke will do something to retaliate at some point down the line.
Thanks once again for the great advice.
Please keep the suggestions coming, we're particularly interested to hear from anyone else who has been in a similar situation.

M

Lakesailor, perhaps you could expand on your useful comment and show us the error of our ways? Maybe you could tell us exactly what you would do in these circumstances?

The error of your ways is that the answer to your question is already contained within the thread. We have been told that the squatter has already shown he is in no frame of mind to feel guilty.
You also seem to have overlooked the suggestion I made about dealing with the squatter. But you do seem to have seen the post which showed the squatter's delightful attitude.

Not quite ghostlymoron, the original post says that another boat owner approached him and was told to f**k off, as far as I can see, the owner has not spoken with the 'squatter'..........pay attention where ever you are!

 

[Birdie]

It would be ironic if his boat caught a fishing line on it's prop whilst bobbing about on the mooring. He probably wouldn't realise until he had cast off.

Sorry Lakesailor, was this your 'suggestion' ? I really don't get the attitude you portray in your posts, making smart alec comments.but nothing of any use. For some reason you have a real issue with my suggestion of actually speaking to the 'squatter', this is what I would do in this situation rather than sit back and hope something 'ironic' happened!

Sheesh!

 

[SHUG]

Sheesh!

+1

 

[Lakesailor]

rather than sit back and hope something 'ironic' happened!

You'll get the hang of these forums after a while.

 

[chrishelen]

I love these forums.