A 30-foot sailboat named Piper, out of Dartmouth, Mass., was anchored and seemingly abandoned 100 yards off Main Beach in East Hampton Village over the weekend.
How the navy blue boat came to be there proved a mystery until evidence of an overnight stay at the Main Beach parking kiosk and a cup of coffee led a sleuthy Mayor Jerry Larsen to its owner.
The boat appeared midday Friday. Its owner anchored, and a passer-by watched as he rowed to shore in a red inflatable 10-foot boat, which a village police officer later found on the beach. Then the man in the boat disappeared.
Ahead of a storm Sunday, town lifeguards used Jet Skis to reach the sailboat. They then boarded it "to confirm there was no medical emergency or people on board," according to a police report.
Lt. Steven Sheades of the village police contacted its prior owner, a Massachusetts man, who said he had sold it three weeks earlier.
"The guy said he sold it to a man from Tennessee for a buck, and that's the last he saw of the boat," Mayor Larsen said Monday morning. There was no information about the Tennessee man, however.
The first 1,500 feet offshore is the town's jurisdiction, and Marine Patrol agreed to tow the boat to Montauk.
Tim Treadwell, the town's chief harbormaster, said that by Sunday it was "dragging its anchor" and getting closer to the beach, edging closer to the Hook Pond jetty. "It had become a navigation hazard, and was close to becoming an environmental hazard."
On Sunday, Mayor Larsen was having a social coffee at the Main Beach pavilion with Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, and his wife, Jenny Lilja, when Ms. Lilja noticed a suspicious man walking in lot 2, the parking area closest to Hook Pond, and described him to the mayor.
Mayor Larsen returned at 3 p.m. to see the boat towed. "I was turning to leave the beach and saw the same guy walking out of lot 2 towards town. It was pouring rain and I figured, 'This has got to be the guy.' "
"He looked like he had been on a boat for a while," Mr. Baladron said.
The man walked to the village. In the meantime, village police checked the SeaSpray Cottages to make sure none had been broken into.
"I thought it was weird that both times he was seen it was in lot 2," the mayor said. "So I checked the parking kiosk. The lock was broken. Inside there were clothes and a cup with fresh coffee. I went back to the village and found the guy sitting on the ground by the bathrooms."
Village police checked on him and ascertained he was the owner of the boat. He said he was sailing from Massachusetts to Florida, but had trouble with the rigging, lost the ability to steer, and hoped to anchor it and wait out the weather.
It turns out he is wanted in Florida on a charge of larceny, but nonetheless, Mr. Treadwell met the man and taxied him out to Montauk to be reunited with his boat. "He didn't do anything wrong except sleep in the guard shack," said Mayor Larsen. No charges were pressed.
"It was a long tow," Mr. Treadwell said. "Sea conditions were choppy."
He said the boat was currently, temporarily tied up at the town's pump-out dock. On Monday, he was unable to get in touch with the man, who was unnamed in police reports, to find out when he was going to leave.
"He seems to have cleaned it up a bit. It was taking a beating on the beach," said Mr. Treadwell.