neglected beach cats

I am not advocating theft of course... but...
I just got back from an area on Lake michigan that had 7 Hobie 16s (one was a 14 I think) on the beach. Some were newer (one looked under 5 years old but was buried by the sand) and some obviously older.
There was one hobie that had only remnants of a tramp... no mast.. etc etc. Clearly had not been moving in YEARS.
Is there any "statute of limitations" in terms of a time limit a cat can be left on the beach before it can be reasonably considered salvage and go to whoever wants to restore it? Anyone who has been to a number of beaches knows exactly what type of boat I am talking about.
No one who knew anything would look at the newer ones and think this, but what about the old ones?

Check with the local authorities. i'm sure there are better informed on this. but the auth. can do an ownership trace basid upon last knowen registration. then either you can try to contact the owner, or the city may have already placed a lien on the boat and then its just a bunch of paperwork. from what little I know, salvage rights wouldn't apply. Its an abondoned property issue. and the owner of the land needs to place a lien on it. any lawyers outthere let us know

Obviously, those boat owners know enough to disguise their boats as junk. Nobody steals junk. That's why we have cleverly camouflaged our boats and cars and bicycles as "junk," so we don't have to worry about theft.

Once we made the mistake of painting our old Hobie 18 a beautiful, shiny yellow and putting it up by the road for sale. It was too pretty, so somebody stole it. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons where they couldn't sell or even give away an old tramoline, so they put a padlock on it and turned there backs for a few seconds while somebody stole it.

I have learn't so much about America from that show <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Gareth

There was a prindle 15 washed up on a local beach sometime ago. It had a hole punched in the side but was a half decent boat. I had my eye on it and dragged it up the beach and put it tidy to see if the owner ever showed up. I think the best part of the winter passed and the day came when i was going to take a trailer down and 'store' it at my place for safe keeping.
The council just got there before me and had chain sawed it up into chunks just large enough to get on a skip! Argh!

exactly my point. The boat would have been given new life and there would be another cat around!

Everytime i drive into my storage complex i get the urge to hook and haul @$$. There are 3 boats (nacra5.2, prindle19, hobie16) that all have flats on the trailer, no covers, and are slowly withering away. They are all in great sailing shape and none of them have soft spots yet. The owner of the storage said they have all been their for atleast 3-4 years untouched....That should be illegal. Donate it, sail it, or sell it!

Why not ask the storage lot owner if you can have the names of the boat owners and contact them. Maybe you can get them at a real fair price and have 3 more cats on the water.

Yeah im working on that! I already did that with a Prindle and a Hobie i found at a storage last year. 2 more boats on the water! Maybe i will get as lucky with these boats as i did with the previous pair. Not to mention that 5.2 would look real good next to my 5.0

Just did this the other day at our storage yard. Talked to the yard manager and she put me in touch with the owner of a real nice Prindle 16 that was going to rot. The owner called and he was ecstatic that I contacted him. Been trying to sell it for about a year - listing it in the Pennysaver

Meeting with him over the weekend to exchange the cash and get the boat. The best part, don't have to move it.

Not a marine lawyer, but used to work with a chick whose family got screwed in a "salvage" deal (that was her story anyway).

Basically, salvage is primarily (only?) for boats abandoned at sea. Depending on the laws, someone who comes upon an abandoned boat can claim half (more/less) of its value from the owner. I think they can push to take ownership if you don't pay.

Avalon is right, more likely an abandoned property issue. Those are a crapshoot. It's amazing how people who completely forget about their property for years become extremely concerned when someone starts talking about taking it from them.

Mike