forget for a minute whos to blame and spend a couple of hours some slings and a chinook copter and set the boat on the hard, and argue about it later.
and WHO pays the $10-12K chopper time, assumes the liablilty, and just where on the hard do you set the boat?? Likely a $50-60K coventional salvage, easily double that if you use the chopper, trailers and crane. And that is IF they could get permission to dig the beach (chesapeake protection act, Corps of Engineers, EPA, and dozens of others would have to give permission just to drive on it, let alone dig it up)..the rest of us can't even get permission to fix a 30 year old dock without an act of god with these groups.
And if you/they did, the city, state and anyone connected to this fiasco would be chewed a new one...in short order - for using resources illegally.
Yes, I would be the first to complain about using these resources to "help"....that is what is wrong with this country in the first place, reward bad behavior, he didn't really mean to leave in hurricane, disable the engine, drink, rattle the shelter, etc. Crapola!
The owner has/had all the options any other boat owner would have, should their boat suffer a similar fate. No one, or no city or state or the Navy/CG/etc offers to pay for the others less/more worthy than this guy. Why should they?
He made the mess, he has consistently added to it....he and he alone can clean it up.