Derelict Boat Off Seaside Park Will Finally Be Removed After Two Years (For Free)

A sailboat abandoned in Seaside Park since 2024. (File Photo)

If nothing else, it was a good way to measure the tide in a pinch.

A derelict vessel that has has sat, half-sunk, in Barnegat Bay for nearly two years will finally meet the end of its journey soon, courtesy of a construction crew from Seaside Park, where it came to rest in the summer of 2024. The borough council last week authorized the 1979 30-foot Island Stream sailboat to be removed from its position in the cove just south of the Dock Outfitters store in Seaside Heights – but within the borders of Seaside Park – after attempts to work out an agreement with its owner failed.

Last December, the borough filed a notice announcing its intention to take ownership of the vessel after declaring it abandoned. The boat has been moored in the shallow spot for so long without moving that it has even been captured on Google Earth satellite imagery. Seeing it up close is less convenient, since the ramps to and from the Route 37 bridges run along the shoreline in the area.

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A sailboat abandoned in Seaside Park since 2024. (Google Earth)

The boat may have had a name during better times, but locals came up with a new one: “Some people refer to it as ‘The Tide Chart,'” Seaside Park Borough Administrator Karen Kroon joked, explaining the lengthy saga of red tape that was involved in preparing to remove the vessel from its unfortunate perch.

“First we reached out to [the person who] the state police told us was the owner of the boat, and just asked them to sign the title over to us,” Kroon said. “That would’ve been the easiest thing – but they didn’t want to do that.”

The next step, she said, was to go through the formal abandoned vessel declaration statute, which involved a mountain of paperwork with the state Motor Vehicle Commission, the publication of a formal notice in a legacy print newspaper, followed by a waiting period. In the end, no one came forward to claim the stricken sailboat. Normally, this would leave the borough with the boat’s “new” title, and thus the ability to remove it, albeit at taxpayer cost. But Seaside Park ran into a strike of good luck.

“Stockton University has a grant, funded through NOAA, to remove derelict boats from waterways, and this one qualifies,” said Kroon.

A sailboat abandoned in Seaside Park since 2024. (File Photo)

Seaside Park submitted the boat for approval and, through the university, was able to accept $18,276 in grant funding that will pay for the equipment, labor and disposal costs of the boat.

“We’re going to remove it with our Public Works Department because the boat has been in the water too long to be salvageable,” said Kroon. “We’ll end up crushing it and putting it in the landfill, but it will be at no cost to taxpayers. That said, I’ll miss the Tide Chart.”