Boat-break up and disposal

Refueler said:
I do not completely disagree ... you make good points .... but ...................

Even an old boat that has fallen to serious condition often has gear that is useful to another. I remember a Waterwitch in Langstone. Had sat for years up a small creek. Tide would come in - she would flood .. tide would go out ... she'd still be sat same spot on the bottom.
When I first saw her ... I tried to get owner to pass ownership over .. but he had debts on it and she was sitting free of mooring charges.
A few years passed ... I watched as he got worse ... and then one day - she was gone.

A bunch of guys had got together and 'bagged her' ... basically passed tarpaulins under her to help her float ... then moved her to be cradled out. The word was the hull was too far gone, but a lot of the gear was salvaged .. cleaned up and put to work again.
Even if only the engine provided parts etc - the effort was paid for.

We have only OP's post that the baot inj question is too far gone and therefore we are making comments based on scanty info. Who knows what is on the boat and salvagable ? I know of various 'hulks' sold / handed over to new owners who have then stripped and made good gear from them.
Click to expand...
True, the mast on a 30 footer would cost over £10k to replace. There must be some value in scrappage for most boats, if not always enough to pay harbour arrears.
 
Perhaps the fact of the OP's boat being wood, changes the usually very difficult final-disposal question into one we can enjoy believing is relatively easily dealt with?

Refueler, I believe every word you say about the Langstone Waterwitch, but it definitely sounds like a distant-past scenario that is unlikely to be repeatable now.

If tired old boats (whose many originally expensive parts are essentially still functional) actually represent a wondrous wealth of fittings which only need removing and a wash-and-brush-up to make profitable, why are companies like the Gosport boat scrappers so uncommon?

If 'old gear' really made old GRP boats worth more than their disposal cost, I believe there would be dozens of outfits along busy coasts, keenly offering to remunerate all those rarely-sailing owners (whose boats' moorings represent an unconscionable dent in their pensions...or whose young families represent countless other costs and minimal interest in boats)...

...and anyone with an old GRP yacht that no buyer is prepared to pay berthing fees to own, even when offered for no cost, could opt to use the goldmine of component parts to cover the scrapper's fee for getting rid of all that wretched glassfibre.

Such seems not to be the case. The price of a new mast/ pulpit/ davit/ windlass etc, may be shocking and prohibitive, but old gear values seem so low that scrapping by organised companies still brings a big fee per foot that discourages responsible disposal.

I scrapped my dinghy rather than pay £0.80 per day forever, to leave her in the club dinghy park. Initially I regretted the necessity, but absolutely nobody wanted her for any purpose, at any price (don't let yourself believe your boat has a new owner waiting in the wings, till you've proven it). I got busy with the circular saw, sledgehammer and trash bags, and it was dealt with in a day and a half.

The club's wheely-bin was full. As of today, even taking into account the cost of the cordless circular saw, I'm about £500 richer as a result.
 
Last edited:
If 'old gear' really made old GRP boats worth more than their disposal cost, I believe there would be dozens of outfits along busy coasts,
Click to expand...

For long time there has been the Barge at Hamble .. Gosport had a yard where such was done ..

The problem is that once the useful gear is removed - do not forget the old saying "one mans trash - is another mans gold" ... the yard is left with a hulk to dispose of.
Unlike cars that can be crushed and recycled - boats are not so accomodating ! Your line says GRP .. which is a problem to dispose off .. but OP's is wooden ..
 
Let's look at it rationally. What sort of boats fall into this category? Probably 50 year old neglected ones. Now what sort of reasonably sound useful items could be found on them? None! Maybe there is someone with a boat in need of a similar mast or boom but why? because it has failed. Why? Because it was old and full of holes like the supposed ly useful one to be salvaged from a 50 year old wreck. Even if it was salvable how long would it be before a sale could be found? Engine most likely only suitable as a mooring block, a heap of rusty non functioning scrap iron.
 
I've trawled around a few 'treasure trove' places specialising in old boat gear. It's a fairly depressing experience. Overpriced, obsolete junk for the most part. I remember seeing a whole bucket of backstay insulators- who is fitting SSB these days? Or shore power chargers that don't have a lithium setting. Might be useful to somebody, but only at a giveaway price. Likewise 15-20yr old electronics and instruments. Generally this stuff sits on the shelf for years.

Self tailing winches, anchor chain, and outboards are fairly easy to shift. But a lot of otherwise good gear is too specific to find a buyer- e.g. cars to fit a certain track profile, sails from an uncommon class of boat. Boxes and boxes of used standing rigging... just, why? Who is so desperate that they buy secondhand rigging of unknown provenance?
 
Refueler said:
The problem is that once the useful gear is removed the yard is left with a hulk to dispose of.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure we're making the identical point - but I'm saying the value of functional but old gear salvaged from an old GRP hull, doesn't cover the other invariable cost...

...whereas your Waterwitch account made it sound like the value of salvaged bits covered disposal of the glassfibre hulk.

No question it's different for wooden boats, as I said earlier.

Fr J Hackett said:
Let's look at it rationally. What sort of boats fall into this category? Probably 50 year old neglected ones.
Click to expand...
You make a good point about cheap, elderly but salvageable kit from one very old boat, not being of very much interest to other owners of the same or similar boats...

...I can remember turning down the Rotostay of another Achilles 24 that was being scrapped, even though that left me with hank-ons, which I didn't prefer.

I think some stuff is likely to maintain its worth - like pushpit tubing, hatches and rare mouldings (like my Achilles' engine well plug) - and lots of boats have recent removable parts from outboards to electrics, but I don't think those are what we mean here.

A possibly unrecognised problem could be the neglect of online class associations. The internet lets us describe and show items that could be sold, swapped or given away by individuals with the same fairly obscure old boats. But some small class associations which used to have very accessible forums and buy&sell corners, have been hopelessly subsumed into Facebook, which makes narrowing the focus of interest, infinitely harder.
EDIT - Waterwitch, not Seawych.
 
Last edited:
My bow was lost and the aluminium toe rail was mauled for a couple of metres. I tried to find it used (not possible to buy new) but none around.

I am putting in a halyard exit in my mast. There are used ones around but not so far off the cost of new. So I bought new.

Something between the two - available and half the new cost - would be useful.
 
Must be back in the late 1960s a nice little gaff cutter motored into Littlehampton on the Spring tide .Theyacht was dry high up the beach two me started stripping useful metals off the boat .Apparently Itwas rotten .Afew days later it was set fire to and the lead keel was salvaged.Dont think the harbour master would allow that these days.
 
Refueler said:
....Unlike cars that can be crushed and recycled - boats are not so accomodating ! Your line says GRP .. which is a problem to dispose off .. but OP's is wooden ..
Click to expand...

Wood with paint and antifoul, bilges soaked in oil and diesel. That's no less of a problem than GRP.
 
Some wood is not good for wood burning stoves; residues, tar etc.

Taking a wooden boat apart to reclaim the timber is a large job.

I know of no use for reclaimed GRP although as we know old tyres can be reused for projects; happy to be corrected.

Saw a documentary about Portsmouth GRP boat breakers I think.

I forget what they did with the GRP - did it go to skip and then landfill?

Bit of a problem.

How about mooring old hulks or sinking them off the coast where erosion is taking place to dispose energy and hopefully save the land and people’s homes?

Mad idea? Probably.
 
Some island in the Caribbean digs ahole/trench soo fin keeled yachts ac snuggle down and be safe over the hurricane season.Take that idea and provide temporary accommodation for people who are homeless or although they have a job they cannnot afordahouse or flat a known problem all over Europe..Cheap accommodation allows mainly younger people to save up and get on the regular housing ladder.
 
Cerebus said:
Some wood is not good for wood burning stoves; residues, tar etc.

Taking a wooden boat apart to reclaim the timber is a large job.

I know of no use for reclaimed GRP although as we know old tyres can be reused for projects; happy to be corrected.

Saw a documentary about Portsmouth GRP boat breakers I think.

I forget what they did with the GRP - did it go to skip and then landfill?

Bit of a problem.

How about mooring old hulks or sinking them off the coast where erosion is taking place to dispose energy and hopefully save the land and people’s homes?

Mad idea? Probably.
Click to expand...
GRP is not very dense - a specific gravity of about 1.3. So it sinks, but only just. A hull stripped of metal (such as the keel, which is probably the most valuable part in scrap terms) would probably need to be anchored to the sea bed or partially buried - a non-trivial matter; otherwise currents could move it. Also, GRP would erode slowly, releasing micro-plastic particles. The glass isn't a problem, but the resin is.
 
There are rules now about new stove installations I think, but my point about burning inappropriate wood is that it messes up your glue /chimney creating tar, blockages etc.

Good, natural, seasoned wood is best; all the sap etc is washed out over a few years and then one allows logs to dry- does not have to be expensive kiln dried stuff (that is a marketing ploy).
 
Refueler said:
There has never been a GRP Waterwitch that I know off ... most were cold moulded ply or occasionally steel plate.
Click to expand...
I thought they were just hard chine ply rather than cold moulded, except in the sense that all ply is cold moulded.

There was a neglected leebord (ply? wooden anyway) example ashore by the Ythan in about 2003-4 which I assume came in from seaward, though even for a leeboarder the mouth is very shallow, but maybe at high springs. I dunno if anchoring is officially permitted in the SSSI

I saw a steel leeboarded version going for free recently, apparently in very good nick. Strange times.
 
ducked said:
I thought they were just hard chine ply rather than cold moulded, except in the sense that all ply is cold moulded.

There was a neglected leebord (ply? wooden anyway) example ashore by the Ythan in about 2003-4 which I assume came in from seaward, though even for a leeboarder the mouth is very shallow, but maybe at high springs. I dunno if anchoring is officially permitted in the SSSI

I saw a steel leeboarded version going for free recently, apparently in very good nick. Strange times.
Click to expand...

Yes sorry ... hard chine .. based on Barge
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

Refueler
Navionics Boating gives me river nav coverage .....
Replies
8
Views
288
Refueler
Refueler

Share this page

Top