Three Newly Installed River Buoys Destroyed in Old Lyme

OLD LYME, CT – Harbormaster Matthew Lynch hopes the Old Lyme Harbor Management Commission can get to the bottom of a series of incidents involving Slow No Wake buoys.

He said three hard-foam buoys were vandalized over the past month. The markers initially were installed in May to warn boaters to keep their speeds down.

He’s asking the public for help identifying who did it. 

Changes to local ordinances, which went into effect last summer, limit motorboats to 6 mph on the Lieutenant River, Back River, Duck River and Black Hall River.  

“Those markers are there because there’s a lot of kayakers and paddleboarders that utilize those smaller inland waterways,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. 

Lynch said the first damaged buoy was discovered about a month ago where the Black Hall River and Back River meet Long Island Sound. After the town ordered a replacement and installed it about two weeks later, he said that buoy was cut in half again.

A third buoy was destroyed near the Amtrak bridge where the Lieutenant River meets the Connecticut River, according to Lynch.

The buoys were manufactured by the Bozrah-based Gilman Corporation, which has offered to replace them. Lynch said the town is still determining how best to move forward before putting new markers back in place.

“We need to figure some plans going forward rather than just putting them back out there to get cut again,” he said.

The remaining portions of the damaged buoys have been moved out of the way as much as possible, but removing them completely requires specialized equipment. 

According to Lynch, the clean cut to each buoy and lack of scraping indicates the damage was purposely inflicted.

“The buoys are several inches thick, so it’s not a (propeller) strike or a boat or anything like that,” he said. “It’s definitely been cut.”

Half of the original cost was funded through the Connecticut Port Authority’s grant program, with the Harbor Management Commission’s mooring fund covering the rest. 

He said each buoy setup, including the floating marker, chain and anchor, cost about $1,600. The buoy itself costs about $750.

Lynch said he went out with Harbor Management Commission Chair Michael Presti to replace one of the damaged buoys rather than pay a contractor to do the work.

“If we have to pay our mooring contractor, you’re looking at a few hundred bucks just to have them do it,” he said. 

Lyme First Selectwoman Christy Zelek on Tuesday said the town’s harbormaster informed her a buoy went missing from Hamburg Cove about three weeks ago, but it was unknown whether the incident was related to the Old Lyme situation. 

Lynch said the Old Lyme Police Department is investigating the damage to the three Old Lyme buoys, but there have been no leads from the public to date.

“I figured that was kind of a long shot,” Lynch said. “They are in rather remote areas. They’re not a spot where hundreds of boats go by all day long. There’s really no homes in the vicinity where there’s somebody looking at them all the time.”

Anyone who saw suspicious activity or has information about the vandalism is asked to contact Lynch at 860-434-1605 or harbormaster@oldlyme-ct.gov.