A 60ft Ocean Alexander pilothouse yacht named Change in Latitude has been stolen from a Florida marina.
The yacht was taken from the Harbour Towne marina in Dania Beach, south Florida during the early hours of Sunday morning. The theft was not straightforward and the thieves reportedly laboured for a few hours manipulating the yacht’s fuel lines, which had been disabled.
Video footage from the marina showed at least three men working on the boat before sailing it away.
Sean Blue, an insurance analyst for AIG, said: “It's unusual for a 60ft yacht to be stolen because of the expertise and knowledge required to run the boat. They're also more identifiable and more noticeable.”
But stolen it was and police are following up leads as to Change of Latitude’s whereabouts.
The sheriff’s office in Broward County has confirmed that the boat had been repossessed from its owner in the spring and is registered in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.
Florida has the unenviable reputation of being the stolen boat hotspot in the United States. The latest statistics available show that of the 5,537 watercraft reported stolen in the US in 2013, 1,329 were in Florida, almost a quarter. However, there were only a small number of yachts taken.
Mr Blue added that drug and people traffickers often used much smaller craft to conduct their crimes and did not like having to deal with the considerable issue of where or how to conceal a boat the size of Change of Latitude.