Is this right?

[Latitude9.5]

Yea I was wondering too, i had a couple providers tell me they wouldn't insure me unless I was on a dock and that was when I was on a mooring ball.

[jzk]

So to answer the question, it is just as "right" for him to anchor there as anyone else. If he wants to risk it, so be it.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by exfishnz

I believe that you deserve one... & here it is

(click pic to enlarge)
Attachment 4218

Thank you. I would just like to thank..........

Edit 5 minutes. and some tears.

[Charlie]

Wheels I think that was a bit over the top saying that was the dumbest question.

SulliI don't know if I would say that it was morally wrong. though who am I to speak on morals. I would say that it is inconsiderate and rude. If I understand it correctly he is using an anchoring area to moor his boat for the summer. Is that right? If so I'd say he is rude . . .

[Pelagic]

If he is a resident of the area; If he pays his taxes to support the towns programs; ….. Then he is every-bit as entitled to enjoy that option of keeping his boat wherever it is allowed.

At anchor or being on a mooring as opposed to being tied up beside nosey neighbours often gives the local user a great deal of overnight pleasure, without having to move.

Perhaps the ethical question should be: “Is it right to complain about someone who seems to have it all?” J

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Vasco

I have a feeling Sullivan is bitching because someone with a more expensive boat than his is taking up a spot that he'd like to have. He should know the first rule of anchoring, which goes something like first come, first served, or boats anchored before yours have priority or rights over yours. If you're too close you move not the boat that anchored before you. If there's no room move on.

It doesn't sound like bitching to me.

If less-wealthy sailors opt to anchor out and "commute" by dinghy to stretch their cruising kitty,and this is almost universally known, why would a local who can probably afford to take a mooring or slip, instead choose to anchor his flashy yacht, thereby reducing the available space for transient boaters to anchor out?

Probably not to save money on moorage or slip fees, I imagine. My guess, Sean, is that it's some townie's idea of a way to keep out the transient boaters. If he can convince three more locals to help him hog the anchorage, transients will have to pay for mooring or a slip, or move along to another locale.

TaoJones

[Latitude9.5]

Now this is getting exciting, not only is he wealthy and extremely frugal, but part of a conspiracy to keep others out!

[lannen]

He's probably a lawyer. You wouldn't want that mooring ball now anyway...

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by ssullivan

Is it right to put your boat into the town anchorage for an entire season to save a few bucks?

As others have said, might not be for the purpose of saving bucks but if it is, then the ethical question becomes "should the "haves" help out the "have nots"". Answer that correctly and you go from the "stupidest question" to the "smartest answer".

Originally Posted by ssullivan

....
Nearby, there is one small area (very small in comparison to the sprawling mooring fields and docks) that is set aside as an anchorage.

OK, some thread drift coming up - what is the ethical position of the town in allowing a good natural anchorage being developed into mooring fields and docks. Pet hate of mine is seeing a safe natural anchorage been swallowed up into a marina leaving no anchorage. Not against marinas, just against them taking the only anchorage sites.

Originally Posted by ssullivan

...Glad to have provided you with the "stupidest question you've ever read on this site."

Don't be too chuffed, there are a lot of close seconds and we haven't had the results in from the other judges yet...

[tomdidit]

I am still unclear on what your question is. Or at least I hope I am.

This guy, who has a home and a boat, likes to be in the anchorage. Certainly he could probably afford to be somewhere else, but he likes it there. And, he is saving some of that money he has so maybe he can afford the fuel for the boat as well. So, if he leaves the anchorage and uses some of that fuel, you, or someone quicker, can secure the spot. It is public...right? Where is the problem?

Should we all travel with our tax returns, and if we make X we can use the anchorage, XX the moorings, and heaven forbid XXX then we must use the marina with concierge?

Ethics have nothing to do with this. It is a public anchorage and he is the public. Probably pays a lot of taxes towards that PUBLIC anchorage and decided to get some use out of it. You think he is unetical for using the spot because......you want it.

Sean, a few weeks ago I remember you having a problem with where to park the car and shower, etc.. I seem to remember you saying that you were caught parked where you were not allowed and your wife caught using a shower facility you were not entitled to? I would say there is more of an ethics question in that then what this guy is doing. Legal..illegal.

It's kind of like saying that you should be thrown in jail for robbing a bank with a gun, but a 7-Eleven robbery with the same gun gets you a pass.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by tomdidit

It is a public anchorage and he is the public.

End of story...

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by tomdidit

It is a public anchorage and he is the public.

This is true, but the question wasn't "Is this legal?" The question was "Is this unethical?" Big difference.

If it were illegal, one phone call would probably take care of the problem.

Sean clearly knows it isn't illegal. His question, "Is this ethical," infers as much. Someone who apparently doesn't need to use the anchorage to save money, and, as a local, should know that available space in the anchorage is limited, and who leaves his vessel anchored out for the season without moving it (lest someone else take the space) is certainly within his rights to anchor there.

But he's a real a$$hole for doing so.

Also, Sean didn't say he had parked the car illegally. He said that he returned to pick his wife up after her shower, a far different thing than leaving his car parked in someone's parking lot all day.

TaoJones

PS: A question of ethics is a philosophical one. It concerns neither legality nor morality. Ethical questions mine the deepest veins of human thought, but to those who do not share a fascination with such questions, they do, indeed, seem "stupid."

[Starbuck]

Well, finally someone makes the distinction between ethics and morality. Their spheres overlap, but they are not essentially the same thing.

It's not immoral, it is not illegal, but it is ethically questionable, if the presumptions being made about the gentleman's socio-economic stratum are actually true. It's probably justified to look at this yacht's lying to anchor with a bit of disgust. Probably. But doing so doesn't increase the amount of available space in the anchorage.

The words "right" and "wrong" were too vague to begin with, and it took over 25 posts to sort out the real question. Fuzzy thinking from the beginning.

And Sean, you really aren't asking a question here: we don't have any doubt that you truly considered this action "wrong" before you put fingers to keyboard. Your post is making a statement about your ethical code, and you want us to confirm your position and affirm your sentiments. It's not very well camouflaged.

If you don't like it, get on the forum and bitch about it. Don't try to play innocent as to your motives. It doesn't come off well. So no it's not a stupid question, but it is a mildly manipulateive one.

That's not an attack: it's an encouragement.
***** ***** *****

Alan, maybe you can get your teeth into this: is it wrong for him it lie to a 2:1 scope, without having backed down, on an undersized Danforth, in weed (and if you like, using a swivel)?

[Alan Wheeler]

Fair enough, dumb question may not have been the best choice of words and it wasn't meant as a personal attack. It is a very dumb question if....... if it was that Sully was using "$400K boat" in the instance of a view or assumption of wealth. So what is trying to be implied? What if it was a $40K boat or a $140K boat? Does that now make it acceptable?? We don't know the reasons behind the why's and why not's. Maybe the owner is in serious financial debt and has no choice. Maybe there is no mooring available for his boat. Maybe maybe maybe, the list can go on and on. It isn't fair to judge someone and/or something based on an assumption.

[Pelagic]

And maybe he just enjoys the boat being out where it is..... sitting on it from time to time....... pondering.............if only I had bought that $650k boat instead....