Vandalism fear as 80ft boat is untied

THIS is the moment a mystery man untied the mooring ropes of a large boat on Bristol's Floating Harbour - and risked “causing millions of pounds of damage or a fatality”.

- TRISTAN CORK

And after reports of similar incidents in the past few weeks, there are now fears that a serial vandal is setting loose the boats tied up in the harbour, and disconnecting power supplies too, in the middle of the night.

‘The latest incident happened last week and was caught on CCTV. At 3am in the morning of Wednesday, September 10, an unidentified man approached the mooring ropes of the 200-ton research vessel Lady Kate, which is docked at Hannover Quay, next to the Lloyds Amphitheatre in the centre of Bristol.

He was captured on CCTV lifting the mooring rope and then approaching the middle of the boat and watching as, within seconds, the boat began to drift away from the quayside. The man on board at the time said he’s since learned that similar incidents have happened to other boats, and is “deeply worried” that something serious might happen if the culprit is not stopped.