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When is a boat a boat?


DrWatson

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I am fully aware that when I buy a house I have no control over what the neighbours choose to do with theirs as long as they aren't breaking the laws and by laws. The only time that would not be so would be if there were restrictive covenants as you might find in a gated community (I could never live in a gated community - they give me the creeps).

 

FYI, It is not only gated communities that have covenants.

 

If you own land within 300m of what is defined as the harbour (Tauranga in this case) you have to comply with the local reflectivity requirements, max of 25% for the roof and 30%(I think) for the walls. Am in the process of extending the implement shed on the orchard and we had to go through a Resource consent application as the shed is within the 300m of the waters edge - thing is you cannot see the harbour or waterway from it.

 

BTW there are some places in Auckland that have covenants on them relating to the owners or tenants not being allowed to complain about a neighbouring business noise unless it exceeds the higher limits stated in the covenants.

 

A couple of places with restrictions on materials that can be used in construction:

- Pauanui

- Botany Downs (parts of)

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Fact is "our" society is just not going to allow it.

If it was in Oz, it would have to be registed and be deemed sea worthy. You would have to have a licence to move it, and carry the minimum of safety equipment.

There are also a great many place that have severe anchoring restrictions.

From time limits to not being allowed to leave your boat once anchored. (This last is a ripper...."you can anchor but the vessel must be attended at all times"...It stops visitors from anchoring and re provisioning without going to a local marina...

If it was up the Mekong river it would be one of thousands and considered well built and luxurious.

It is always interesting to see peoples varying opinions of "allowable freedoms" The recent debate on life jacket laws is an example.

What it needs is a wonderfully altruistic owner of a super yacht to anchor there, attach a line to it and class it as a "ships tender" and then see the sh*t fly !

 

(I am a master of shack building...I can build a warm waterproof, very comfortable and safe dwelling for next to nothing from junk....but no council would allow me...

in fact one I have built still stands, and the laws of local Chinese whispers have now changed it after 30 years into a historic rabitors hut !!! I could probably get an historic preservation order on it after all the locals tell me its at least a hundred years old...)

 

Sad thing is, I could do a full set of "official' drawings

Get all the permits and then wack three shipping containers together and they couldnt touch me.

Freedom is a very interesting word.

It mostly comes from having the ability to pay for it !

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9992534.jpg
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We all know that if we woke up tomorrow and the existing top dwelling changed to the bottom one, the weird freaky out there dude in a shitty pest of a shack would suddenly change to a world leading water-borne dwelling genesis in his award winning architectural wonder and everyone would want one.
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I'm not entirely happy with that outcome!

Obviously the guy has little funds, and had built himself a little place to live with the resources he had. Now where does he go? Will the council find him a social housing unit, at yet more cost to the ratepayer?

And, would he have got away with it if it looked more like a boat??

 

Off to social welfare I guess, although he will likely be unsuited to all the hoops they will make him jump through! :crazy:

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Knot to sure I like the idea of the council deciding it wasn't his as it was build from stuff he found, so they intend to destroy it. That seems dodgy and counter productive.

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this guy built the thing on the boulderbank and when asked to remove it he cut the cabin off a small boat and floated off and left a mess on the doc controlled boulderbank , first decent southerly it fell off the boat, now the wreck of the boat is made another mess in the haven good on the council for gettind rid of this mess. it was never seaworthy and had no holding tank im glad its gone

Howdie

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I still think that the law has been incorrectly applied all through this story.

 

A half decent lawyer should have been able to take the council to pieces on this one.

 

Finally, I feel it sets a dangerous precedent.

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Sooo.... what if people started building these eye sores in the hundreds and floated them out there like a shanty town? What if those little shanties of floating rubbish was floating out in front of your Home or local Beach or any of the Bays you go Anchor/Moor? Why should you with a Home on Land, have to meet all the Local Gvt red tape/costs and yet someone else, just because the House floats, get away scott free. Come on guys, this IS NOT a boat. Get real.

He does have other places to live. He is not Homeless. He is not always living out there on it. I suspect it's probably too cold and he needs too much wood to keep the Pot Belly going, but JMO.

Lines need to be drawn. But that does not mean that local Gvt is then going to turn around and kick a proper Boat out of any area, unless of course they are breaking the law in some way.

He leaves a mess everywhere he goes, he was told to remove it, given a time frame, nothing happened, they had complete justified legal grounds in removing it.

 

I do have a question though, are you allowed to leave a Vessel unattended for any length of time when it is anchored? So I know you can only anchor for a certain Duration before moving, but can you leave the Vessel unattended for any length of time. On the Boating Club moorings here in the Sounds, there is a rule of not leaving a Vessel on one unattended. But that is for courtesy in case some one else comes along and wants to raft up etc.

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Pretty much disagree with everything you said Wheels, or it is just conjecture on your part.

 

I want to be reassured that the law is applied evenly. (And would people stop using that dumb argument that other people may not approve. That is the path to fascism).

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I want to be reassured that the law is applied evenly.

It is applied evenly. Do you come across any Authorities telling you or anyone else to up anchor and get out of a bay. Even if you were living aboard, as long as you were not permanently anchored in a Bay form life. The Nelson story is an extreme case where lines just have to be drawn, or floodgates get opened. And Nelson is full of the types of People that would be rushing to find waste materials to build shanty shacks and place them out there, if they think they can live for free. It's got nothing to do with Fascism. If it was Fascism, then you may as well say that all House building rules/Land rules, Consents, Resource Consents etc etc is Fascist. Some might see it that way, while other see it as protection. Although I think we all agree a lot of it is over the top bureaucratic red tape, there still has to be some rules.

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I want to be reassured that the law is applied evenly
I think we all know that if the vessel didn't look like a pile of crap and/or the story hadn't gone national the out come could very easily have been different. In fact I'm willing to bet the Council would spend a significant sum of ratepayers money to encourage say Larry E to bring his boat and park it there as long as he likes. I'd also be willing to bet if shack lad had painted it nicely, put a few solar panels on the roof and hung a little sign on it saying something like 'Test dwelling for self contained living. Supported by WizzBang Eco Green Paints Ltd', Russell Norman would be dropping to his knees and giving the dude a blow job inside 30 seconds, then change a law to allow more shack dudes to park in the area.... and he's probably pay them to come.

 

I wouldn't wait to be reassured there fella as I suspect you'll die waiting.

 

I could be wrong as I don't know that council well but the couple I do have clearly shown themselves to be cherry pickers.

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In this case, it wouldn't matter what the "house" looked like either. Even if the "House" ion Wild Oats Pic was out there, people would still be pretty pissed off. Perhaps even more so. You have to understand where this guy was. If he was in some place that was out of Public view, he would probably be fine, but he chose a Prime Water view, right in the heart of Nelson. That's more the issue. It was an eyesore. But in me saying eyesore, Wild Oats house Pic would have been an eyesore also. For Aucklanders, choose any nice Public Beach area where there are Homes with a nice view and then imagine someone putting a shack on floating drums right smack in the middle of it. That basically what this guy did. If he was in one of those nice Auckland Beaches, he would have been moved just as fast.

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An interesting contrast this case with the guy who popped up anchored at Westhaven in an "unusual " vessel. Probably in similar personal circumstances to the chap in Nelson. He was quietly moved to a place where he wasn't so obvious and left alone. (????) The guy in Nelson had his home and only possession confiscated and destroyed.

So which authority handled it better?

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He was given a choice to take his possessions or leave them and plenty of time. He could have taken the Raft somewhere else, but wait, it's not capable of being moved to anywhere else. As I also said, if he was anywhere else, he would probably have been left alone also. He simply chose the wrong place.

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