Abandoned boat clogs Auckland street

The abandoned boat on Nikau St. Photo / Supplied

An abandoned boat and trailer has crowded an Auckland street for almost a year and is annoying local business owners.

House of Knives owner John Fryer drives down Nikau st, in Mt Eden on his way to work. He said the boat has been there since November last year, except for a few weeks over summer.

The boat has no registration or warrant of fitness label.

Fryer called Auckland Transport three times in the last year to try and get them to remove the boat. But each time they responded that they can't treat the boat as abandoned until they've written to the owner, with no registration plates they haven't been able to find the owner to write to them.

"Which seems ridiculous if I was to put it on Mt Eden Rd would it stay there as long?

"What annoys me is it's just not allowed."

Fryer said Nikau St is very narrow. Having the boat parked there means cars can only go single file. He said the vessel looks like a "bloke's fishing boat".

"If you put something wider than a normal car there it just makes it more inconvenient and it's against the law.

"They should actually tow it away and put it in a pound until someone claims it."

Auckland transport spokesman Mark Hannan said they are looking for the boat's owner.

"The trailer doesn't have a registration so we can't track the owner that way.

"Last week we visited and took serial numbers off the outboard to see if we could get a marine shop to assist us to find an owner.

"The next step will be, removing and storing the vehicle, the owner will be required to pay towing and storage fees and a $200 infringement for not displaying plates."

Hannan urges the public to get in touch if they can assist in finding the owner.