The Covid-19 crisis has meant that a large number of craft have spent the best part of 18 months laid up since being lifted out at the end of the 2019 season.

Looking back, I seem to remember that many yards, club and commercial, seemed to be pretty full even before the crisis, so the problem can only have been exacerbated. I know at my own club, space was limited for those wanting to be lifted this last autumn.

I nearly always carry a camera and just a ‘light-weight’ trawl through my pictures provides a gamut of views into yards passed by.

So many craft have the look of utter dejection. They are lichen coated. Sometimes, even bushes can be seen growing in a cockpit. I have even seen a tree growing out of a cockpit locker!

Often I come across craft on my rambles with my good mate. She’ll often be left striding away into the distance when I stop, pull out the camera and begin clicking!

The boat below is a case in question. She is a Dauntless of around 19 to 20 feet, probably gunter rigged. These little craft were once common around the east coast.

The boat has sat, apparently abandoned, for more years than I can honestly recall. She’s still ‘intact’ but for how long. As a yard man said to me some years ago, ‘Provided the bills are paid, she stays…’

There is another of the class in a marina in Kent. I take a look at her every time I have visited over the past five or so years – not last though for the marina remained closed to outsiders!

Wandering round a marina on the River Blackwater the year before last, I spotted several boats that had clearly been sitting awaiting a new owner or an owner to decide on his (or her) next course of action.

Amongst the group were a couple of Westerly centaurs looking somewhat bedraggled with lichen coatings taking hold.

Often the boats are still afloat. How often have you sailed into a marina and berthed alongside a yacht covered in Verdigris?

Well this little thing has danced many a waltz around her mooring buoy in a creek off the River Blackwater. I shall be interested to see if she is still there later this year (Hopefully…).

Now, sometimes, I am almost shedding tears. A once beautifully varnished clinker Finesse 24 has sat ashore in a yard off the swale for a good number of years. I believe it could be as long as seven to eight years now.

The boat came ashore for her normal refit and has sat, mouldering. I have spoken to the owner, now well on in years, who told me she was for sale – a poster on her transom has some details appertaining.

I am hoping to find that she has been sold. I keep the Finesse records, so hope to be told!

Another of my Whimbrel’s sisters sat in a rill off Benfleet Creek for many seasons. I have actually been aboard some years back when in far better condition. She was for sale for £4,500 then! It was far to high a price, I thought.

Her mast and gear have ‘disappeared’ since and her insides were ‘rifled’ by unknown persons.

I could go on looking through my files for pictures. In the current situation we all find ourselves in – not being able to travel for good reason – I can’t refresh and obtain a view of current yard holdings, but surely, my wanderings will return…

In all UK countries, the common goal is for a general opening up in late May and by end of June, full clearance from current crisis restrictions. People will be able to access craft from early April in England, hopefully … so it will be interesting to see how many craft have a ‘for sale’ sign attached as the year progresses beyond the usual rush to get afloat passes.

It is not only yards where craft can be found in need of more than a little tender loving care and affection for recently it was reported in the marine industry press that a ferro-cement ‘schooner’ had sunk in Brixham Harbour. It was stated that recovery and repairs to pontoons would come to around £100,000. Not a small sum.

It was also stated that should a vessel fall into disrepair, be abandoned and sink, the fall back is on the harbour authority. An authority also has to be careful in disposing of an ‘apparent’ abandonment: it might not be. But, in reality, ‘it is the harbour authority that is obligated to remove and dispose of the vessel at its own cost…’

So, it is easy to see why owners walk away…