From the tipline: The Mystic

According to the tip about the vessel Mystic:

Boat that someone bought from a charity. 2 new Caterpillar engines at a really good price.

It’s a 1920s Biloxi trawler. At one time it was running commercial charter trips out of the OS harbor. OS is not a commercial harbor.

Anyone that knows anything about this is encouraged to contact the tip line.

28 thoughts on “From the tipline: The Mystic”

  1. Getting closer, but there is more much, much more. To truly understand the depth of corruption that festers to this day keep a close eye on the vessels stored on Ms. Martin’s property in OS Harbor. Switch and bait.

    1. I don’t know about this one Doug, but I do know that the DMR has the SMPDD under an Independent contract to “CONDUCT MISSISSIPPI WORKING WATERFRONTS FEASIBILITY STUDY” effective 8/1/2013 through 9/30/2013 for $47,500. What the hell is this for??? I think this Independent contract has been going on for several years…
      Here is the link if it will work : http://www.transparency.mississippi.gov/contracts/independentContractsByAgencyName.aspx
      How long has this crookedness been going on??? Is this how Leonard Bentz is getting paid???? Where t he hell is the FBI????

  2. P. S. If you will notice, this is paid from “Other Fund Amount”. What the heck does that mean????

    1. This is the vessel. No reflection on the current owner but I am hearing repairs paid for prior to the purchase by DMR. Makes sense, followed same path as other boats. Follow the money to south Florida.

      1. I don’t believe this boat had any repairs made that were paid for by the DMR. I watched the young man and his wife re-fasten the planks and restore this vessel at a boat yard in Gautier over a long period of time. Seems like it was there a year or longer. They worked really hard on this boat and had very little help. It was in really poor condition when he got it which is an indication that there hadn’t been any money spent on it in quite a while. I don’t think he paid much if anything for the boat when he got it. This boat doesn’t have Catipillar engines either. It is still equipped with original 453 Detroits. I think there may be more than one boat on the coast that is named the Mystic.

          1. Actually I think you are correct and they are 4-71s. The story I was told by the current owner was that the original owner either passed away or was just not able to maintain the vessel due to an illness or something similar and then donated it to a boy’s non-profit organization. It then sat without any maintenance for a long period of time and was eventually either sold or given to the new owner. The boat was in very rough shape and didn’t show any signs of any type of repairs or money being spent on it the first time a saw it. Without proper maintenace a vessel like this can be a real headache and a huge liability.

          2. Was the chain of ownership of Zoric/Mystic State of Louisiana to Zoric Corporation(Richard Kelley) to Ross Dodds to YADA to Hinton?

          3. I’m not sure what the chain of ownership was but I doubt very seriously that the new owner paid $30K for the boat. I seriuosly doubt the young man would have had that sort of cash to begin with. How many kids in there 20s have that sort of cash? And if it was financed through a bank there would have been a survey required and insurance. The boat would have never surveyed for that much at the time it was sold and if he could have found someone to write a insurance policy it would have been unaffordable. I own a 50′ wooden boat so I know quite a bit about them. It is very expensive to insure a wooden vessel and really tough to find someone to write a policy that doesn’t contain clauses that exclude every reason you want to have insurance in the first place. Most people I have met that own large wooden boats don’t have insurance.

          4. Your explanation of the realities of large wooden boat ownership and maintenance is interesting.

            Would a large* supposedly neglected wooden boat be the type of donation one would expect a nonprofit charity to accept?

            Would a large* supposedly neglected wooden boat be the type of donation one would expect a conprofit charity to accept?

            * Large defined as too big to tow with a 3/4 ton diesel pickup.

          5. In my opinion No, not unless the non-profit organization had experience in restoring or maintaining this type vessel and thought they could clean it up and sell it quickly. Other than that I’m not sure what the benefit would be in accepting something like that. In my opinion it would be a huge liability if you didn’t know what you were getting into. An example of that would be if it sank due to negligence in maintaining it or just a freak thing happening like a through hull fitting failing. There would be a huge cost involved in raising it and restoring it if you had to write a check for someone to do it. Then living on the coast we have to deal with the storms. It takes a lot of time and effort to run a vessel like this up the river and secure it in preps for a hurricane. Then there maintenace and slip fees to keep it, you really need to haul it out and paint the bottom every 12-18 months to stay on top of things. Who knows what they were thinking? Maybe they thought the boys could do the repairs? I don’t know what type of condition it was actually in before it was donated.

  4. I am really at a loss here to understand your righteous indignation that some are showing about these vessels. It is very expensive to keep these wonderful old boats on the water and in operating order. You really don’t think a non governmental entity could afford to do this do you?

    IJR

    1. With all due respect kind Sir – There are many coastal fishermen who can’t feed their families and can’t affort repairs on their vessels since Katrina. How can we justify our Tax dollars being spent to restore an old vessel to “sell (more like give)” this boat to one of our “dear friends”? I am not against history; however, if we can’t afford it, then we can’t afford it! The Taxpayers ARE NOT millionaires and we can’t live as such. Donations could have been made and fundraisers by individuals could have been held to finance this vessel. Looks like the Taxpayers paid for it whether they liked it or not. I guess the one who okayed it doesn’t have the balls to tell the Public what has been done. And the new “owner” needs to step forward and tell the truth of the matter. It is just a matter of time before the FEDS move in on him anyway, in my opinion.

  5. Hmmm… that vessel was owned by one Ross Dodds of Ocean Springs. Ross donated it to David Harris at YADA, when YADA was at the big CIAP rip called Harbor Landing because the boat was there and everyone saw it. It was in terrible shape when Ross first donated it to David. Ross did not keep it up and it had been thru many storms. Ross Dodds left for Italy. Then the boat disappeared from Harbor Landing and it was said it was on a yard somewhere in Biloxi for a real long time. Then it came back to YADA and was sold by Harris to someone for $30,000. It is now in the OS harbor, nice boat.

    Heard that the line of junk boats at the OS Harbor is owned by Harris/YADA. It’s gross and horrible. How is it legal, to have a dump right there? More assets for Competition Marine to get ahold of and shake Harris down. Stay tuned..,.there are Harris shakedown stories for T shirts his wife sold for the Y and you had to buy one and Harris shook down OS merchants for money for bogus T-shirt orders. Ya Nick baby that one’s for you, the dolphins know what you did when you tossed Harris and his extortion attempt right out of your store! Love ya.

    1. Wonder where it was reapired in Biloxi Dolphin? Anyone have any ideas? I’m sure the Fishermen know. Maybe they will post and tell the story.

        1. Big ole engines on the Coast has to be Johnson Marine. If the walls in that place could talk, theyd be talking to the FBI except that they got sooooo much money from this very scam…someone donates a big ass yacht to Harris and picks up a giant $250,000 donation…say, McClain? Who donated the Topaz, which was then the Poor Boy…then the title is never changed…then the boat gets dropped off by the Friends of Billy and fixed up by us, the dumb sheep taxpayers, then Harris sells it or rents it for big bucks now that it has $93,000 fixups in it (don’t forget the XM radio)…and takes the money and scams some poor widow out of her property at Weeks Bayou (by promising not to build on it) with the help of an ex-alderman named Jalanavich who built the boat barn and bar for him. Then, Harris turns the land over to Jalanavich who builds an ugly spec house on fill dirt he illegally dumped from excavating Harbor landing, in exchange for his illegal building. Then, Jalanavich, with a straw man in between, sells the lot to the City Of OS post-Katrina, which, because it was at 1 foot elevation, is destroyed, which is why the widow didn’t want a house on it, DUH> Why, look, another bailout of Harris and his pet alderman by the government! Competition Marine alert—quit trying to make the taxpayers pay for Harris’ boat. That wasn’t a DMR scam, it was a Harris/Walker scam and Harris got all the money and land and he should pay the $93,000. Competition can have his beachfront lot at Weeks…naturally Harris kept the beach part and gave Jalanavich the soggy lot, which he filled. How much did the City pay for that lot? Yall can see it, go to Weeks Bayou; the City has it chained off so no one can use it, it already was used for a scam. There was a wreck of the house Jalanavich built on it and he didn’t clean it up, the City did, of course! Only the best for those guys. Hey, why not give Harris the Armory in OS as well?

          1. They got what they deserved on that one. House destroyed, No insurance. They did the same bait and switch thing on the southwest corner of Hanshaw and 90 that was donated to the Y. I heard Harris put a wad of money in his pocket on that one also using the services of his favorite OS Alderman/contractor/realtor/strawman.

      2. In regards to the Mystic. No State or DMR money was used to purchase or fix the old boat. The Mystic was donated to the YMCA-Harris in 2008 by Ross Dodds, the boat set in ocean springs harbor in the front of the Harbor Landing for a year after that in disarray with no repairs to it. Matthew Hinton purchased the boat in July 2009. The Coast Guard Doc reflects this. Matthew hauled the boat out in April 2010 in Gautier, and began repairs on the boat. After digging further he discovered there was a lot of work to be done and was stuck on the yard for over 400 days with little help. He has done a grand job bringing this classic boat back!

    2. Call the Aldermen and the city of Ocean Springs to file a formal complaint. I understand Harris owns that a small parcel next to the boat storage building. He will never clean it up until forced to ,to busy sitting on East Beach talkin to the vodka bottle.Poor Melba Harris,all those lost years.

  6. If the information is correct that YADA sold the Mystic for $30,000, there should be a paper trail on the transaction as to who received the money. Did the YMCA receive X amount of money as operating funds from a non-profit such has been reported of YADA? And did the IRS get their fair share?

  7. On a comical note–I believe when all is said and done the History Channel will be able to craft a 5 day television series about the DMR. I bet it would be a big hit. I am thinking 8-10pm Sunday through Thursday. Then, once per year they could replay them in an all day marathon like other stations do with the Rocky series movies.

    It wasn’t much but that is my thought of the week. I don’t have any solid intelligence regarding the boats.

  8. Doug posted this on another blog concerning Gov Phil. I think it is very fitting for all of the players involved…every stinking one of them that reached out their hand for Taxpayer dollars and perks….

    Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep

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