The mystery of the Malaga taxi driver's sailing boat that ended up stranded on a beach in Valencia

A sail boat belonging to Alejandro Cervera, a taxi driver from Malaga, has become stranded on Garrofera beach in Albufera, Valencia. The King of Kings has been stuck there for five days without anyone being able to remove it. Cervera told SUR's sister newspaper Las Provincias, "I have already spoken to the company that is going to tow the boat and they have the necessary machinery to carry out the operation,"

Alejandro, who bought the vessel in January, explained that at the beginning of July he received a call from the Real Club Náutico telling him that the Majestad la Reina regatta was going to be held, so he had to move his boat, which was moored on pontoon two, mooring two of the club. As he was unable to do so in person, Cervera authorised the club staff to change his location, as the keys were inside the boat.

However, on Monday 14 July, the taxi driver received a call from Spain's maritime rescue service who informed him that the boat was stranded on Garrofera beach. He immediately reported the boat as stolen to the National Police in Fuengirola.

The official version of what happened, reported by Salvamento Marítimo, is that that the Club Náutico saw two people "cleaning the deck of the boat" on the morning of the day of the incident. Now Cervera wants to check the Club Náutico's security cameras to see who these people were and what they were doing.

Cervera says that he did not authorise anyone to board the boat and stresses that he does not have any friends in Valencia. "I only authorised the Club Náutico to move it because they needed my mooring to be able to bring in boats from the competition," he pointed out.

The owner of the King of Kings claims that the anchor and ropes, which are too heavy for one or two people to have stolen them, have disappeared from the boat: "They have been carried away by the waves".

He also says that there are hundreds of new boats in the Club Náutico and that his is not one of them: "It wasn't fit to sail, it was to be restored. I don't like the fact that they could take mine and not others in better condition". Alejandro commented that he paid 30,000 euros for the sailboat which needed a lot of work and estimates that its current price is 160,000 euros with repairs, despite the fact that it is still not in optimal conditions to go out to sea. Among other things, it doesn't have sails. Fully repaired it would be around 240,000 euros, according to Alejandro.

The Real Club Náutico said there has been no negligence on their part and that their staff are very conscientious when it comes to looking after members' craft and that the boat could not sail adrift in this way with no one at the helm.

It insists that the large dimensions of the vessel, which is 17 metres long, make it very difficult for it to leave unmanned. The same sources point out that in the Club Náutico only the entry of vessels is communicated, but not the exit and that during the weekends there is more traffic. They also point out that there is an open investigation by the Guardia Civil and that the security recordings are being reviewed.

The next step in this saga will be, as Salvamento Marítimo reports, for the owner to take charge of proposing and financing the refloating plan for his vessel. The operation, which will cost around 10,000 euros, will be carried out from next week.