OLD ORCHARD BEACH — A buyer has been found for a sailboat that ran ashore on Old Orchard Beach last week, saving both the owner and taxpayers thousands in potential removal fees.

On Sept. 27, a 34-foot sailboat with an estimated worth of about $7,000 washed ashore near Walnut Street. John Corbett of Georgia had purchased the used 1970 Tartan sailboat in Boothbay that day, and attempted to sail to his home state.

Around 9:30 that evening, he was docked in Saco Bay when the anchor broke and the boat ran ashore on the town beach.

Corbett said in an interview last week that he did not have a GPS unit or nautical charts.

There was no insurance on the vessel, and Corbett did not have the $7,000 to $12,000 needed upfront to pay to haul the boat off the beach.

Staff from the town’s Public Works Department brought the boat to higher ground on Friday, away from the shoreline and onto the nearby entranceway to the beach.

At Tuesday night’s town council meeting, Town Manager Larry Mead said Corbett had sold the boat, and that the new owner plans to move it “in the next 10 days or so.”

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].