It’s breaking laws and annoying swimmers.
There’s a boat that’s been anchored in San Francisco’s Aquatic Park illegally for way too long.
And people have some colorful nicknames for it.
KRON4 doesn’t have the name of the man who apparently lives on the yacht, but some swimmers say his boat is constantly in their way.
The National Parks Service says so far, nothing has gotten him to leave.
By now, the anchor of the boat has probably gotten really comfortable at the bottom of Aquatic Park Cove.
“It’s been out here over 100 days, and the reason that’s unusual is because normally, a permit is only for five days,” SF Maritime spokesman Lynn Cullivan said.
But in this case, the man who owns the boat never had a permit at all.
Even if he did, Cullivan says any given boat is only allowed to be moored in the area for 30 days out of a given year.
That means this boat is more than two months past its welcome.
“The cove is basically a kind of primitive camp in terms of a mooring; it doesn’t have a restroom, it doesn’t have pump facilities so most people will only stay in here for a few days, and then they would move on,” Cullivan said.
So what is the harm of a boat floating there for so long?
Just about any swimmer from the south end rowing club could tell you.
“He says that he doesn’t have a toilet in there, but more than once, I have been in the water around 6 in the morning, and you can smell human discharge out there in the water,” swimmer Miguel Melendez said.
The annoyance prompted somebody to tag “Move the Boat’ on its side.
A lot of people wondered aloud why law enforcement can’t just impound the boat like they would a car that was parked illegally.
“He’s been here way too long, and I don’t know what the rule on that is, but he seems to be getting away with it,” Melendez said.
“My understanding is he has been arrested and has been issued citations,” Cullivan said. “I believe they came from the United States Park Police.”
Park police didn’t return KRON4’s phone calls to give details of those citations.
We were also hoping to learn if and at what point towing the boat becomes a legal option.
Park rangers have spoken to the man on the boat who has told them simply that he doesn’t want to leave.