Mosman boat: Affluent suburb up in arms over boat drama parked by REX pilot

One of Australia’s most affluent suburbs is in turmoil after a commercial pilot parked his huge boat on a residential street and left it there for days.

Laureen Ong noted Saturday that a ship about twenty feet long was parked outside her Mosman home, on Sydney’s Lower North Shore.

The owner of the boat had asked Mrs. Ong’s husband if he was blocking their driveway, and when her husband said no, he left the boat and drove off.

But as the days wore on, Ms. Ong’s frustration grew over the ship blocking her view of traffic as she backed out of her driveway, and then because it apparently hindered construction work on her property.

Ms. Ong turned to a local Facebook group in an effort to locate the owner and demand that they move the boat immediately.

‘Please move your boat! If you are or know the owner, I request that it be removed immediately,” she wrote.

‘We are having construction work done on my house. It has made two huge deliveries so far with a crane that is difficult to unload.’

The post sparked outrage — with several residents berating the owner for dropping the boat in the suburb.

The situation escalated hours later when the boat’s owner – REX Airlines First Officer Palle Lunoe – hit back, noting that his boat was legally parked, stating that concerned locals had “a little too much free time.”

‘To all the upset Mosmanites – this is my boat. I’m glad I can admit it,” he wrote.

“The trailer is legal and the boat is legally parked. It is a registered vehicle and therefore has all the rights to be parked on the road.

‘I spoke to owners of the house on the left. They are happy with it. The people in the house on the right left the driveway as I parked it there and they refused to stop to talk about it.

That said, I’m happy to move it if it’s [sic] cause nuisance. Although a simple friendly request would have sufficed.

‘Frankly, you should read about the commotion this caused. Maybe you have a little too much free time.’

The boat left locals divided, with some saying Mr Lunoe’s post – which garnered more than 860 responses – “gives insight into the minds of… rich people.”

“Seriously, just because you’re blessed to live in one of Sydney’s most expensive suburbs doesn’t mean you have the right to never be inconvenienced in the least once,” came one reply.

‘Actually, it’s your boat that parks in front of your house or pays for a berth. Common courtesy,’ someone else commented.

Ms Ong told Daily Mail Australia that neither she nor her husband had thought that Mr Lunoe intended to park his boat in front of their house for five days.

“My husband thought he only parked it for a short time and it wasn’t like it was going to stay here,” she said.

“Everyone assumed he was fixing something or doing something, but I don’t think that was the case.

“He didn’t say it would take five days. [If he did] my husband would have said something, of course.’

Mrs. Ong said she didn’t argue with him… I understand that everyone has to park their boats and trailers and people park them on the street – that’s fine’.

“My big problem was going in and out of my driveway, I couldn’t see it and the bus stop is right there,” she said.

‘They are flying by so I have to be very careful and can’t see when I get out’ [of the driveway] With my child (ren.’

Ms. Ong said she has not been able to use her garage because it is now full of building materials that could not be deposited in the right place.

She said she first contacted the council, but they were unable to help, so she decided to try and track down Mr. Lunoe personally.

While she felt her post was polite and reasonable, she said he appeared to be “very upset” and “unfriendly” to her.

“I wanted to find him to ask him and the only way I could was to make the post, but he took it offensively,” she said.

“I was very surprised how he reacted to us and we tried to talk to him on the phone and not make this ugly. It was clearly a misunderstanding.

‘But [the phone call] just wasn’t pretty. He wasn’t happy and said ‘your wife has blown this all out of proportion’.’

Ms Ong said she spoke to Mr Lunoe on Tuesday and that he agrees to move the boat later that evening.

However, she said he texted her back to say he could no longer do it for personal reasons, but promised to do it the next morning.

At 3pm on Wednesday, the boat had still not been removed and Ms. Ong said she had not heard an update from him as to when it would be picked up.

Ms Ong said there were other areas in the street that did not block the driveways where he could have parked.

“He could just park it around the corner. There are areas out there where it won’t block the driveways or hinder anyone,” she said.

But Mr Lunoe, who lives in an apartment 2 km from the car park, said he is not one of those people “who buy a boat and leave it there for six months”.

He said he was happy to move the boat, which he’s owned for three months, but that “no one is polite anymore.”

“All she had to do was write ‘who owns this boat?’ on the internet,” he said.

“It caused a huge uproar.

“If she was building something, I would have just come up and move the boat.

“But everyone goes up to 500% anger and acts in pretty extreme ways, and the whole community gets involved in 600% anger.”

Mr Lunoe said he has no quarrels with the homeowners and is sure they are “nice”.

But he believes we “live in a community, which means people should live with other people in mind.”

“People increasingly believe that they should be able to live in a community, but they should have the right to be angry if something is bothering them,” he said.

‘…As if nothing can affect them.

“You have to wonder if I’m really bothering someone to cause a stir when they just need to slow down their driveway.”

Mr Lunoe said he told Mrs Ong’s husband when he turned in that he would pick up his boat sometime in a week.

He claimed he had been contacted by “hundreds of people” who offered him support about the saga, and even councilors had contacted him and asked him to be a public advocate for misconceptions about legal boat parking in the area.

At 5.30pm on Wednesday, Mr Lunoe told the Daily Mail Australia that he had collected the boat.

Registered boat trailers can legally be parked on a residential street for up to 28 days, but the issue remains controversial among Mosman locals.

Earlier this month, the Mosman Council decided to impose four-hour limits on nine parking spots in Mosman Bay to address boat trailer parking in the area.

Boats are common on suburban streets, with an average home price of $5.3 million, with data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics placing residents’ average weekly household income at $2,892 per week in 2021.

In August, data from the ATO released by Canstar revealed that Mosman was the sixth wealthiest suburb in the country.