A family’s boat parked on a residential street near a busy beach has triggered a tense war of wards among residents in an upmarket Sydney suburb.
A disgruntled local in Freshwater, on the northern beaches, spray-painted the words ‘f*** it off’ on the boat’s cover to protest it taking up a parking space.
In a typed letter placed on top of the graffiti, the owners claimed the boat and trailer were both registered and therefore legally parked.
‘Hello. My family and I recently moved into the street,’ the one-page note began.
The owners of a boat parked on a street beside a popular beach have hit back after disgruntled locals spray-painted ‘f*** it off’ on the cover (pictured)
The owners of the vandalised boat hit back with a typed one-page letter which was placed in a plastic sleeve and taped to the boat
‘This is our family boat that we go fishing and wake-boarding on. The boat and trailer are registered and we can thus park it legally on the street.
‘We live on the street and haven’t just parked it here as it looks like a quiet spot.
‘I have tried to be thoughtful by not parking directly in front of anyone’s house or next to their driveway. The boat will move when we take it out.
‘Hope you can understand and not graffiti or damage our family boat.’
Photos of the vandalised boat were posted to Reddit earlier this week with users quick to weigh in on the neighbourhood drama.
‘Boat owners: either put the s*** in your driveway, on a mooring or at a storage yard,’ one person commented.
‘Agreed. If you can afford to keep that thing maintained, you can afford to rent a spot to store it. Or at the very least, dump it somewhere lower density,’ a second wrote.
‘We’ve got a boat parked in out street as well,’ a third shared.
‘It’s been in the same place for so long that the trailer wheels have sunk into the asphalt. There are five giant removalist trucks parking in the street too.
‘The guys don’t even live in the area; I see them drive their personal cars in each morning, hop in the trucks and go work for the day.
Boats can be parked on residential streets for up to 28 days before they need to be moved ‘at least as far as a different block section of the same street’ according to the NSW government
‘Every evening the whole fleet of them are back and taking up parking space in a very dense area with already limited street parking options.’
Boats can be parked on residential streets for up to 28 days before they need to be moved ‘at least as far as a different block section of the same street’, according to the NSW Office of Local Government.
If the boat isn’t moved, a boat trailer (and any boat it carries) may be impounded.
Local council can charge owners for the costs associated with a boat trailer (and boat) retrieval from an impounding facility, as well as sell an unclaimed boat trailer after an appropriate holding period.
The laws will not apply when a Residential Parking Permit has been issued by the council and displayed on the boat trailer.