Good News Weekend as Stolen Boat Is Recovered
Last week Jim Considine reported his ’06 Pursuit 2570 stolen from Gashouse Cove in San Francisco. Yesterday we received the good news that the boat had been discovered in a slip at Pier 39 Marina.
“I got it back on Friday, overwhelmingly intact.” Jim told us.
Though it was unclear how long the boat had been in the marina, it was still in (mostly) good shape, though some of the onboard equipment may need repairing or replacing.
“It looks like thieves took the boat fishing, as rods and nets were strewn about. They left some marks on the hull, ransacked the cabin, stole binoculars (and maybe more), and ran down fuel and batteries. They may have shorted the chartplotter/ radar/depthsounder in their efforts, but I am still trying to diagnose that new condition.”
As boaters are wont to do, dozens of people helped keep an eye out for Jim’s stolen vessel, and he expressed his appreciation to a few in particular. “Many thanks to Scott Grindy, harbormaster at SF Park & Rec. [San Francisco Recreation and Parks] for notifying other CA marinas to be on the lookout; to Steven Arsenault and his colleagues on the Pier 39 staff; to Officer Kanada and his colleagues at the SFPD marine unit; and to the many folks from the Coastal Cruising Club and SF boating community who offered advice and were on high alert for sightings of our boat.”
Now that Jim’s power boat has been recovered he can get on with his most important task, learning to sail.
Good news about boats that burn petroleum product? I see Latitude 38 as sailing magazine and one that purports to be friendly to the environment and cognizant of what is causing climate crisis. I cringe whenever I see one of the gas guzzlers race by or tie up at our yacht club dock which, ironically, is considered to be a “ Green Marina”. Allowing these motor yachts to tie up at our dock is aiding and abetting and now I’m complicit. But not for long.
Dennis — We’re not quite ready to purge all gas-burning vessels from the Bay, but your point is taken, as is your sense of urgency to take action.
Curiously, we find ourselves wanting to “defend” the existence and operation of speedy motorboats, because they’re essential in supporting large-scale regattas and other sailing events. No, we would never buy or own a dual-engine speedster ourselves, but if someone leant us their ride, we sure would drop the hammer and have fun blasting around the Bay, and going from Marin to Oakland in under 20 minutes. (Hopefully someone will invent an electric or hybrid speedboat someday soon!)
In defense, we want to say that motorboats probably make up such a small and functionally insignificant percentage of the petroleum burned globally (though they probably have appallingly poor gas mileage). If we’re really going to go after wasteful vessels on San Francisco Bay — and to truly be cognizant of what’s causing the climate crisis — then we should turn our attention to the ships coming and going under the Golden Gate. “By burning heavy fuel oil [aka bunker fuel], just 15 of the biggest ships emit more of the noxious oxides of nitrogen and sulphur than all the world’s cars put together,” the Economist reported.
But wait, this is a story about a stolen boat being returned to its owner. We’re just happy that there was a good outcome to some bad news.