The Forgotten Fleet

A 25-foot 1969 Jensen sailboat with no sails, cracked windows and partially filled with dirty seawater sat sadly in the marina Tuesday morning during a lien sale conducted on the docks by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Marina del Rey station.

Eight sailboats and two skiffs were on the auction block, the last stop where abandoned boats go before they are destroyed.

Deputy Bryan White, of the sheriff's marine operations unit, oversaw the lien sale that started at 9 a.m. with an inspection, followed by an auction at 10 a.m. Nobody showed up for the auction.

"These are abandoned vessels that have reached the end of their life," White said. "They are not seaworthy."

The watercraft included a 28-foot 1971 Ranger sailboat with a minimum bid of $1,273 to a 26-foot 1970 Coronado sailboat with a minimum bid of $4,939. The minimum bids includes the sheriff's mooring fee of 90 cents per foot per day, plus $50 for towing. The 1969 Jensen was on the block with a minimum bid of $3,368.

The abandoned boats have been in the sheriff's custody for 45 to 60 days. White called them "the forgotten fleet."

Most of the boats were unlawfully moored, or parked in a slip that wasn't theirs, White said.

"It's a reflection of the maritime world," White said. "Boats wear out and are eventually sold to someone who doesn't know what it takes to maintain one."

The sheriff's department tries to track down the owner of each boat to send them a letter knowing about the lien sale. There's a 10-day grace period after the lien sale date. If the boats aren't claimed by the end of the grace period, White sends paperwork to the Department of Motor Vehicles to have ownership transferred to the sheriff's department.

After that, the boats are hauled out and crushed.

"As a mariner, no one wants to see that," White said. "You wish every one of these boats had an owner and were taken care of."