BBC Report on Abandoned Boats

[Habebty]

Seems a little bit of scaremongering to me about the amount of harmful chemicals left in old anti fouling, or is it? I can’t imagine there is much asbestos left in old boats - as mentioned, and thought that most fibreglass was fairly inert until broken up into small particles.
I actually like the slow decay of old wooden wrecks. How accurate do you think this report is?
Hundreds of abandoned boats dumped around Devon and Cornwall

 

[TiggerToo]

I can easily believe the "hundreds of abandoned boats" claim. You can see them in many (all?) creeks down where we are based (Falmouth and surrounding areas).

Are they a problem? It could well be.

Are they the most important problem to solve now? This I don't know. It would probably stray into politics, so we are not allowed to discuss this on these pages, now. ?

 

[fisherman]

A problem:
Hundreds of abandoned boats dumped around Devon and Cornwall

and a possible solution, for GRP al least
How is an ‘end of life fibreglass boat’ recycled? | Boatbreakers

Might be a proposition to have a scrapyard stripping boats for useful fittings and recycling. I wouldn't mind, but dirty job breaking up grp. quote from the link:
Benefit: Recycling 1000 tonnes of fiberglass in cement manufacture saves up to 450 tonnes of coal, 200 tonnes of chalk, 200 tonnes of sand and 150 tonnes of aluminium oxide (Source: Holcim, 2010). And the recycling process produces no dust, ash or other residues.

 

[mrming]

Here on the East coast, our marina has quite a few gradually decaying grp boats where presumably someone is still paying the bill. The local creeks and river also have plenty of abandoned boats on moorings. One day they’re going to be a major headache when the mooring fees stop coming. I know of at least one boat breaker down on the south coast who is paid to take boats away and cut them up. Perhaps these businesses will spring up elsewhere in the country as people start to deal with the issue. I don’t see it as a huge environmental hazard, but the hulks are definitely eyesores. Perhaps marina and mooring owners could adopt a policy of requiring owners to remove or refurbish neglected craft?

 

[sarabande]

The BBC item is based on a 2016 report.

Business-development-around-nautical-tourism.pdf (europeanboatingindustry.eu)

Leaving wooden boats (perhaps so old that they have expired TBT antifouling on them) to rot, provides micro-climates for all kinds of bugs and arthropods etc. We are encouraged in the National Park to leave branches and brash from felled trees rather than burn them up.

GRP is a different animal, and needs a more positive and proactive approach from Councils, the Env Agency, Natural England, etc. to provide a formal dumping area, with owner identification and fines for boats left to rot elsewhere. Fly tipping on land is rightly subject to stringent controls. I seeno reason why a similar process cannot be set up in estuaries.

 

[oldharry]

The BBC item is based on a 2016 report.

Business-development-around-nautical-tourism.pdf (europeanboatingindustry.eu)

Leaving wooden boats (perhaps so old that they have expired TBT antifouling on them) to rot, provides micro-climates for all kinds of bugs and arthropods etc. We are encouraged in the National Park to leave branches and brash from felled trees rather than burn them up.

GRP is a different animal, and needs a more positive and proactive approach from Councils, the Env Agency, Natural England, etc. to provide a formal dumping area, with owner identification and fines for boats left to rot elsewhere. Fly tipping on land is rightly subject to stringent controls. I seeno reason why a similar process cannot be set up in estuaries.

This is a real issue: Most boatyards and many YC's have abandoned boats on their premises. It can take a couple of days to cut up a GRP boat, plus the not insignificant cost of a skip or whatever to remove the residue, so that breaking up say half a dozen derelicts is a not insignificant investment of money and time. The issue with Saraband's comment above is that there are thousands of abandoned boats, already, with no means whatsoever of identifying the last owner. That is the issue: without any means of identifying legal ownership, nobody is going to take responsibility for something that will leave them £100's out of pocket to dispose of!

The market for second hand parts is too limited generally to make the cost of salvaging fittings worthwhile except for high value items like sails, spars and engines.

 

[Koeketiene]

The market for second hand parts is too limited generally to make the cost of salvaging fittings worthwhile except for high value items like sails, spars and engines.

Yes, those might be high value items, but if the boat's been abandoned, what kind of a condition will they be in?

A boat on a mooring not far from ours hadn't been used (or moved even) for over 4 years - sails still bent on, exposed to the elements.
She's just changed hands - for €1.
The sails are destined for the skip/bin - as are the electrics - and the engine needs a complete rebuild.

 

[zoidberg]

On the other hand, there seems a steady but never-ending stream of starry-eyed dreamers** willing to take on near-derelict old boats with the earnest intention of refurb'ing them and returning them to service. Experience and a hunt around forums like this and others shows this seems to keep a number of new and used parts/components/paint/fittings/engines suppliers in trade....

** I know. I'm one of them! ;-(

 

[sarabande]

In an ideal world, there would not be a backlog of abandoned boats. The difficulties and costs that you have identified are because so many have been fly-tipped over a long time.

We need to clear up the backlog, then move to a "current disposal" basis so that people do not add another dying boat to some backwater. We have tackled the abandoned plastic bags problem by a charge. Perhaps that is a reasonable model for old boats. If I have a car that terminally fails the MOT, I take it (or have it taken) to the scrapyard. The costs will be higher to do that for a boat, but the environmental burden of abandoning it are not acceptable today.

 

[Gary Fox]

Old wooden boats, slowly rotting away back to nature, are highly photogenic tourist magnets, the Bretons have taken full advantage, try and find a pic of Camaret without the langoustier graveyard.
I personally think much more care should paid to the beauty of our creeks, by leaving old wooden craft to their own devices. They attract tourists and wildlife, and make ideal dens and adventure playgrounds.

Anyway it's the BBC, probably a made-up load of old cobblers..but I will have a look, you never know there might be a glimpse of Zoidberg's sleek ocean greyhound!

 

[Gary Fox]

On the other hand, there seems a steady but never-ending stream of starry-eyed dreamers** willing to take on near-derelict old boats with the earnest intention of refurb'ing hem and returning them to service. Experience and a hunt around forums like this and others shows this seems to keep a number of new and used parts/components/paint/fittings/engines suppliers in trade....

** I know. I'm one of them! ;-(

Well said and good luck to the dreamers..

 

[Caraway]

GRP is a different animal, and needs a more positive and proactive approach from Councils, the Env Agency, Natural England, etc. to provide a formal dumping area, with owner identification and fines for boats left to rot elsewhere. Fly tipping on land is rightly subject to stringent controls. I seeno reason why a similar process cannot be set up in estuaries.

I agree with the concept. But the typical owner who leaves his possession to decay where it is not going to be up for transport charges to move his/her hulk to a dump. finding owners and getting their 'donation' would be almost impossible.

 

[zoidberg]

Old wooden boats, slowly rotting away back to nature, are highly photogenic and attract tourists, the Bretons have taken full advantage, try and find a pic of Camaret without the langoustier graveyard.

Then there's the 'cimetiere des navires' at Terenez, another one in the upper reaches of Portsmouth Harbour, yet another at Devonport.... and what about all those hulks in the Truro River?
Granted, neither old wooden walls nor fibreglass.... and some of them radioactive!

 

[Gary Fox]

Seems a little bit of scaremongering to me about the amount of harmful chemicals left in old anti fouling, or is it? I can’t imagine there is much asbestos left in old boats - as mentioned, and thought that most fibreglass was fairly inert until broken up into small particles.
I actually like the slow decay of old wooden wrecks. How accurate do you think this report is?
Hundreds of abandoned boats dumped around Devon and Cornwall

Yes, absolute totally ignorant scaremongering, clickbait hysterical BBC bullcrap. But a good topic for chat!

 

[Adios]

30 years ago me and some friends salvaged an abandoned plywood hulk from an east coast estuary shore. Crudely patched it up with plywood and putty and set off with an outboard attached. Made it out into deep water where it started to sink and the outboard failed. Someone came by and saved us but instead of towing us back to the mud where it belonged they towed us into a marina. We took the outboard, stepped up onto the pontoon and walked off quickly

I better not name the marina but apologies to whoever returned to find their empty berth had a much reduce draft.

 

[Caraway]

So it was you!

 

[Adios]

? me and my big mouth.

 

[fisherman]

Old wooden boats, slowly rotting away back to nature, are highly photogenic tourist magnets, the Bretons have taken full advantage, try and find a pic of Camaret without the langoustier graveyard.

Yup!

https://imgur.com/YlZCf4i

 

[Laminar Flow]

Old wooden boats, slowly rotting away back to nature, are highly photogenic tourist magnets, the Bretons have taken full advantage, try and find a pic of Camaret without the langoustier graveyard.
I personally think much more care should paid to the beauty of our creeks, by leaving old wooden craft to their own devices. They attract tourists and wildlife, and make ideal dens and adventure playgrounds.

Anyway it's the BBC, probably a made-up load of old cobblers..but I will have a look, you never know there might be a glimpse of Zoidberg's sleek ocean greyhound!

One of the best cimetere is at Etel. There the wooden wrecks have attained a suitably photogenic state of decay over white sand. When the local mayor got a bee in his bonnet and wanted them all removed, it was met with a national outcry.
There is also an old Breton folktale, according to which it is bad luck to take an old ship to the wreckers; for, as the old one rots away on some lonely mud bank, a new one is built beneath the waters to carry the souls of all those lost at sea to the everlasting. I'm currently writing a novel framed by that theme.
But, I suppose, GRP just takes too long a time to get the sub-sea rebuild on it's way.

 

[laika]

Seems a little bit of scaremongering to me about the amount of harmful chemicals left in old anti fouling, or is it?

A little research shows that TBT was outlawed for boats <25m in 1987 so whilst abandoned GRP boats may be a growing problem, TBT on them shouldn't be.