What to do with a found boat?

[Chip]

Yesterday, I rescued a fishing kayak out of a strainer on the Patuxent, in Maryland. The river banks are undeveloped with few launches above where the boat was found. The river has been over the banks almost weekly in the past, very wet, year. I suspect some fisher person kept this boat stashed in the bushes somewhere, and it got washed away in a high-water event.

A few years back I found a kayak on the Potomac, in DC waters. I contact authorities in DC and they said I should bring them the boat. They had not received any reports the boat was missing, and it was so slime covered I believe it had been missing for at least weeks, probably months. It is possible an owner would eventually contact them and reclaim the boat, but I thought it unlikely, after so much time had passed. If nobody claimed it, they'd auction it off after a year. I hadn't wanted the boat so I sent it home with another paddler that was with me that day, and who ended up in a divorce, moved, change numbers, etc, and who I've never seen or heard from since, so that boat, to my knowledge, didn't get turned in.

What do you do with found boats? Seems silly to turn the boat in just to have it auctioned off, but I'd be happy to reunite the boat and owner. I've posted it to the lost and stolen boat forum of Chesapeake Paddlers Association, but I doubt too many kayak fishermen frequent that site.

I'd hoped to find something in the boat to help ID the owner, but it was empty (other than water and mud). I really wished the owner had applied one of those ID stickers ACA is always pushing.

This is the 4th kayak I've found. Those kayakers need to learn to tie up their boats!

 

[yellowcanoe]

Take up a new hobby?

 

[lowangle al]

I found a thousand dollar mountain bike in some bushes one time. The guy at the bike shop told me to put an add in the Public Notice section of the local newspaper and if no one claimed it would be mine.

 

[memaquay]

All the canoes I have found have been trashed, either twisted up in the bushes after a rapid, or with the bow or stern bobbing out of the water, usually in the pool after the rapid. On the Drowning River one year, I found parts of the same canoe for several miles, the biggest piece was maybe 1 x 2 feet. It was green, if that means anything.

 

[Erica]

I found a flats boat washed up after a storm in the ADKs. It even had a registration number. I tried to call various officials to find out who the owner was and what to do, but no one every told me. It just sat there and for all I know it is still sitting there.

 

[Alan Gage]

I found a thousand dollar mountain bike in some bushes one time. The guy at the bike shop told me to put an add in the Public Notice section of the local newspaper and if no one claimed it would be mine.

And????

Alan

 

[Black_Fly]

Hey, Thats my bike! stashed it to get back to my car on a river run. I had to walk 10 miles. Thanks a lot!

 

[Guest]

Yesterday, I rescued a fishing kayak out of a strainer on the Patuxent, in Maryland. The river banks are undeveloped with few launches above where the boat was found. The river has been over the banks almost weekly in the past, very wet, year. I suspect some fisher person kept this boat stashed in the bushes somewhere, and it got washed away in a high-water event.

What do you do with found boats? Seems silly to turn the boat in just to have it auctioned off, but I'd be happy to reunite the boat and owner. I've posted it to the lost and stolen boat forum of Chesapeake Paddlers Association, but I doubt too many kayak fishermen frequent that site.

As far as finding the owner, are there gas stations/convenience stores/etc at any of the upstream bridge crossings? You could post a “Found green (or whatever color) fishing kayak on the Patuxent downstream of X-road. Identify the make & model for return”. Maybe set up a Yahoo or such e-mail address that you can check for response rather than publically post your regular e-mail address.

I'd hoped to find something in the boat to help ID the owner, but it was empty (other than water and mud). I really wished the owner had applied one of those ID stickers ACA is always pushing.

I haven’t belonged to the ACA for several years and had no idea that they had begun pushing ID stickers. It is a very good idea, especially for lost boats; not just to “Return to owner”, but also to help determine that said owner isn’t a bloated corpse somewhere and help prevent unnecessary S&R.

Our friend Willie turned me on to what I use, ID stickers intended for golf clubs. Durable, waterproof and small enough to use on paddles. They were $10 for a sheet of twenty, but each 2” x 1” label allows four lines of text, enough for a complete name & address. I used my
Name
e-mail
Name
e-mail
and cut them in half.

Tested on some paddles, when those proved tenacious I ordered another 20 (40) pack and put them inside all of our boats, sometimes one obvious and one hidden, on the rest of our paddles, and inside our hard sided gear like barrels and boxes.

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...ety/32680-​contact-info-on-paddles-and-gear

I just looked to see how many of those labels I have left. None at all.

Time to order another sheet; it wouldn’t hurt to put them on our sails, the wife’s bikes and some other gear.

 

[snapper]

This happened to a friend of mine a few years ago when an old Curtis canoe blew up onto his lawn on Otsego Lake. He posted flyers in town and even took out an ad in the local paper. It all led to naught so he kept if for himself. He tried to find the owner for about 6 months but no one came up for air so I'm not sure what else he could have done; or considered.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Chip]

I called Annapolis Canoe and Kayak. It being a name-brand kayak, I figure there is half a chance they sold the kayak. Alas, they have no database of people to who they sold boats, but suggested posting it on SnaggedLines.com, a forum popular with the local kayak-fishing population. I registered, but after a day, I am still awaiting "moderator action" to enable me on their forum. I also called DNR dispatch, and got a call back almost immediately. They were concerned about there being a bloated corpse, although given the water temperature, bloating might take a while. They were somewhat relieved when I told them I'd seen this hull bobbing over a week prior, though on that high-water run, we weren't stopping to screw around with it. Given they had no missing kayaker reports for the time period and sub-40 degree water temps, they were less worried about it being a rescue situation.

Conversation with the DNR then turned to how they could go get the boat. It would not be a simple matter for them to drive a jon boat to it (their initial thought) due to river-wide strainers. They asked for GPS location, which I thought I might have, given I took a few pics with the iPhone and I thought the iPhone embedded GPS location in photos. It might, but I can't figure out how to get at the GPS among the data with the photo. I sent them a map of my paddling track, the map shows where I took the photo. So, it wouldn't be too hard for them to find where I left the boat tied off on a bank, but I had the feeling if they couldn't drive a truck or boat there, they weren't going. And why go? It's just a fishing kayak, not a super valuable asset. The guy on the phone was conversing with somebody else who seemed to suggest leaving the boat there so whoever lost it could go find it.

The DNR guy asked for the serial number. I sent him this photo I took of the s/n, which is somewhat illegible. Could you swear to the s/n in this photo?

 

[Guest]

It would not be a simple matter for them to drive a jon boat to it (their initial thought) due to river-wide strainers.
it wouldn't be too hard for them to find where I left the boat tied off on a bank, but I had the feeling if they couldn't drive a truck or boat there, they weren't going. And why go? It's just a fishing kayak, not a super valuable asset. The guy on the phone was conversing with somebody else who seemed to suggest leaving the boat there so whoever lost it could go find it.

XTC is Old Town/Johnson Outdoors, so it could have been purchased anywhere from Bass Pro to on-line to big-box.

https://oldtowncanoe.johnsonoutdoors.com/kayaks/fishing?jo-page=2

I don’t know how often you are on that stretch of the Patuxent. Maybe next trip use a solo-able tandem with a partner and bring a spare double blade. If it is still there paddle it out. The owner may not have another boat to go looking for it.

Then we may know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdMl45rlJDE

 

[dougd]

A few years back during a big spring flood a canoe washed up on a friends landing on the local river. Pretty beat up, so beat up even the HIN was screwed up, so he called me and asked me if I wanted it to fix up. Got it here to the Humble Hovel and it turned out to be the first boat I learned how to pole in, a Ranger Otter in F/G. We posted on FB, local paper, all the local paddling clubs and flyers around town. Nothing, no response and I waited about 2 months before I took it as my own.

I did the fix and paddled it a bit bringing back some really fond memories for that is a really nice hull. I ended up giving it to my HS buddy to get him out of kayaks and into an open boat. Still in use today. Here's the write up to the fix:

https://scooter-bangortoportland.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-mystery-canoe.html

dougd

 

[Chip]

Why, why, why, I don't know. But I went back and got the boat. It's a low cost, BS fishing kayak, not really something I want in my fleet. Sunday, looking at the forecast for rain on Monday and Tuesday, I walked in and fetched the boat. The rain came and the river is over the banks again. I guess the kayak would have stayed where we left it tied up, but I just figured if it was ever to be gotten, sooner was going to be better than later.

I have posted on Craigslist. If the administrator of the fishing kayak forum ever lets me in, I'll post it there. I notified DNR. Yet I still feel like I'm stealing something. Its possible the kayak's owner would have found it where we left it, but seems more likely somebody else would have made off with it. I figured that somebody may as well be me, but, really, why? What do I care what happens to this piece of consumer plastic.

It was not easy to walk in. Only about a half-mile walk-in, but I had to ford three muddy guts about 20 feet wide, crotch deep and skimmed with ice. The footing along the banks of the river was very muddy/slippery, so it would have been real tough to drag the boat out. As it was I was skittling--a term I made up to describe attempting to walk on very slick mud. That would not have worked while pulling a load. I brought a paddle and paddled the boat out.

Guess I need to get a fishing license.

 

[lowangle al]

You did the right thing Chip by going back for it. I think once you pulled it from the strainer it was yours, and by leaving it there you were littering. I'm not really serious, but whenever I pick something up that was lost or abandoned or more likely thrown away I feel guilty about leaving it there(nothing as big as a kayak though). I once spotted a bike on the bottom of a pond and thinking it may be something good I returned with a rope and hook. Before I even got it in the boat I could see it was junk. That was 25 years ago and it's still somewhere in my backyard.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

I bought a couple of these for my flotilla.

 

[Eric Billard]

If you put in the effort to rescue the boat, I’d say it’s in your hands. Now that’s some “trip treasure” if you ask me!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chip]

Speaking of trip treasure, the kayak retrieval had an unexpected plus. Sometimes, if we have time while out mucking about, we'll collect trash. We aren't that serious about it, but it can be a fun challenge to park the boat up against a strainer and pick out bottles and cans. There's current in the river, so it's an exercise in boat control to say, snuggle up to a strainer and pick the trash from one side, then paddle around and come up into the back side of the strainer for some more.

We were looking at a 7-mile trip, which can be done in 2 - 3 hours. We had about five hours, so to expand our trip duration, our plan was to explore the side tribs and fish out trash as we went along. We planned to deposit our trash at a county park less than two miles downriver, because we knew that further on, we'd be lifting the boat over river-wide obstructions, and we didn't want to be lifting the extra weight of trash in the boat. We've done that in the past and while the park workers probably aren't pleased, it can't be that hard to drive their golf cart over and cart off the sacks of trash.

It's about 400 yards from the developed part of the park, where the parking is, to the launch. There's a paved path, so with a cart, not too hard to get to the launch area. Then there's a steep bank with a long stairway to the river, probably 100 steps or so. So, we lug our contractor-sized bags of trash up the steps, and deposit them there at the end of the paved path.

I've never know what happened to the trash, but it had always been gone by the next time. But, it's winter, and I doubt they even have staff at this park in the winter. After six days, the bags were still there.

The cockpit of this kayak is very long. I imagine it is irritating to paddle because water must constantly be dripping off the paddle into the boat, just as it does when double blading a canoe. However, the big cockpit was ideal for carrying two, contractor-sized bags of trash. So, besides the kayak, I carted along the two bags of trip treasure! Best of all, the following day was recycle day, so I was able to stop at the end of the driveway and drop off the trip treasure, and it was gone in the morning.

 

[devils son in law]

I'd post a "found" ad if I found kayak somewhere. But I think if I lost a boat, the burden would be on me to make posts to find it, not on the guy who walked outside to see a kayak on the bank of a river.