They say the best two days of a sailor’s life are when he buys a boat and when he sells it.

That’s because owning a boat is a big expense and a lot of work. Sometimes an owner gets overwhelmed by all the responsibilities and costs and never sees that second-best day.

Instead of selling, an indebted owner will simply walk away, leaving the boat at the harbor. It’s a little like the way a homeowner upside down on a mortgage can move out and leave the property to the bank that made the loan. Several times a year, people abandon old vessels at marinas across California.

As many as seven abandoned and/or derelict boats will be removed from the Oceanside Harbor over the next two years with the help of a $36,000 grant received by the city.

Harbor officials have used state grants to remove 42 vessels from the harbor since 2015, according to a city report. The money is from the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s Division of Boating and Waterways, which requires a 10% local match provided by the city.

“California awards these grants because they recognize the severity of problems that accompany abandoned vessels,” Harbor Division Manager Joseph Ravitch said in an email. “Our coastal marinas tend to have quite a few abandoned vessels at any given time. They can be very costly to remove. And without assistance, many entities could leave the vessels floating where they are, without a final solution, only to become an environmental concern, or worse, a true hazard.”

Each removal costs $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the size of the boat, the size and condition of its engine, the contents of its fuel tank and other factors. The boats initially are taken to the harbor’s impound dock until they can be sold or destroyed.

At least one boat at the harbor is ready for removal using the grant money, Ravitch said. The conditions of the state grant require the money to be used before Sept. 30, 2025.

Oceanside Harbor has almost 1,000 boat slips. Owners usually abandon their vessels for one of two main reasons, Ravitch said.

“When someone passes away and they have no heirs interested in dealing with the financial responsibility of a boat, it can sit for a long time,” he said. “Indeed, this is the case for one related boat in our marina, which will likely be considered abandoned soon.”

People also tend to walk away from vessels when they are overwhelmed with the costs related to upkeep, he said.

For example, an older, neglected 26- to 30-foot sailboat could be worth only $4,000 on the market, he said. It may need work costing as much as $20,000 to make it seaworthy again.

Even if the maintenance work were completed, the value of the vessel would be less than the cost of fixing it. There’s also the ongoing expenses of monthly slip rental or storage fees, insurance and other routine boat-related bills.

Monthly slip rentals depend on the length of the slip or the boat’s hull, whichever is longer. The rate in Oceanside starts at $416 a month for the smallest slip, which is 26 feet, and goes up.

Most of the boats acquired by the harbor are not worth refurbishing and so they are destroyed, Ravitch said. Sometimes they are sold at auction, but rarely, and only after a lien has been placed on the boat in an effort to recover the overdue fees.

“Boats not in need of serious repair do not end up being destroyed,” he said. “Someone always comes along for them, such as an heir or a bank. People don’t walk away from a good boat.”

San Diego adopted new rules in 2019 to reduce the number boats abandoned in one of the region’s last free places to moor or anchor, a shallow part of the ocean off Naval Base Coronado known as the Zuniga shoal.

More than 100 boats had been left there in recent years by drug smugglers and boat owners who can’t afford maintenance costs, creating an environmental and safety hazard, officials said.

In response, the San Diego City Council approved new regulations that limit anchoring at the shoal to two hours maximum and reduce the time for owners to recover cited boats from 90 days to 30 days.

The grant awarded to the Oceanside’s Harbor District is one of 29 grants totaling $2.75 million awarded statewide in fiscal 2023-24 for the removal of abandoned vessels. The San Diego Unified Port District received $100,000 from the program for the same year.

Other cities in this year’s distribution included Berkeley, Stockton, Suisun City, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Santa Barbara City Waterfront Department.