Fowey--Abandoned Boats

  • Thread starter Thread starter FWB
  • Start date Start date
For once it's actually true.

I know a forumite who'd had a bottle of wine while his wife was out for the evening, looked at E-Bay, thought a sailing yacht was a romantic idea - he'd never sailed a boat in his life - so made a bid.

Snag was it got accepted and he had some explaining to do when SWMBO came home...

The boat came in handy as a place to stay during the divorce.

True story, here.
 
foeu said:
Article in Telegraph, people are said to be buying boats on eBay late at night after a few drinks.
Possible paywall. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...er-a-few-drinks-says-Fowey-harbourmaster.html
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But boats are being left to rot in Britain’s ports because would-be sailors are buying second-hand fishing vessels online after enjoying a few drinks, a harbour master has suggested. Captain Paul Thomas said he has been “plagued” by abandoned vessels in Fowey harbour in Cornwall, which he has been removing over the past year at a cost of thousands of pounds.​

Ach, nothing a ground survey, a big crane and a low loader won't sort out.
 
JumbleDuck said:
But boats are being left to rot in Britain’s ports because would-be sailors are buying second-hand fishing vessels online after enjoying a few drinks, a harbour master has suggested. Captain Paul Thomas said he has been “plagued” by abandoned vessels in Fowey harbour in Cornwall, which he has been removing over the past year at a cost of thousands of pounds.​

Ach, nothing a ground survey, a big crane and a low loader won't sort out.
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And Thunderbird 2.
 
There's been a thing recently where abandoned fishing boats have been gathered in Bristol as an ' art installation ';

So it would just be artistic to film the organiser being given the bill, in the same style as lottery winners.
 
JumbleDuck said:
But boats are being left to rot in Britain’s ports because would-be sailors are buying second-hand fishing vessels online after enjoying a few drinks, a harbour master has suggested. Captain Paul Thomas said he has been “plagued” by abandoned vessels in Fowey harbour in Cornwall, which he has been removing over the past year at a cost of thousands of pounds.​

Ach, nothing a ground survey, a big crane and a low loader won't sort out.
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You forgot the blog,blag and website that are also a prerequisite.
 
Saw a report a little while back, maybe even onm here, of the problem they have in the USA with abandoned boats. Trouble is there is more money about and therefore more boats afloat yet grp doesnt ever rot so old knackered boiats that no one wants to use cant any longer be dragged up a muddy creek and left to die. So old boats like say Westerly 22s are a liability for the owner not an asset.

Its a problem at our club. We are blessed with lots of out of water storage space and this was rapidly filling up as people gave up using their boats and either couldnt sell at any price or didnt want the price they could sell at. We had to implement a sharply rising storage charge for boats that never launched. Several unsaleables have been chopped up and gone to landfill including one 30 ft concrete boat.

And once away from the fleshpots of the solent, prices for older british boats are falling. A Konsort was sold for 10k at auction, a Sadler 29 bilge bought for 13k for example. Both in half decent nick.

Can only see the process continuing. Boats are becoming like cars in that respect.
 
The big problem is that steel etc in a car is mostly recyclable, but grp is not, so how to deal with abandoned unwanted grp boats?

Chainsaw and skip to landfill is one answer, but only really practicable for relatively small boats, a local yard set fire to one a few years ago. The smoke was horrendous and probably highly toxic, and they still had to deal with all the mess of glass fibres that were left. I don't think they had thought that through as they have fairly regularly burnt old abandoned wooden boats in the yard.
 
BlackPig said:
A mate bought a share in a double decker bus one night. Spent 3 years trying to get rid of it.
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I bought a guitar on eBay when I was drunk. I was the only bidder and got it for a bargain price as the seller had spelt the name wrong. When I went to pick it up, I mentioned that I was drunk when I bought it. "Yeah, I was drunk when I listed it" he said. He didn't look to happy at handing over a £500 guitar for £150...

In my last job, a colleague had a motor sailer kept in Truro city centre (just downstream from the boat covered in flowers). He sold it on eBay for a half decent price to someone in Newcastle who never visited it for the next 2 years. Wonder if it's still there?!
 
Is there a website or a firm out there that takes possession of boats that have defaulted on mooring fees and sells them off at auction ? .......... no funnies about ebay ! :ambivalence:
 
I've never understood boats being abandoned when their owners cannot or will not pay berthing fees. Surely it's better to sell it as an amazing bargain, and recoup something.
 
dancrane said:
I've never understood boats being abandoned when their owners cannot or will not pay berthing fees. Surely it's better to sell it as an amazing bargain, and recoup something.
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Thats fine in theory Dan but we have found in some cases that we werent even able to ( literally) give them away! We tried for a year and a half with opne boat and it ended up being sawn into bits and off to landfill.
 
That's very sad. Doesn't scuttling at sea appeal to owners who've tried and failed to sell (or give away) an old tub?

Though, I suppose scuttling a GRP hull wouldn't be green enough for this day and age.
 
dancrane said:
I've never understood boats being abandoned when their owners cannot or will not pay berthing fees. Surely it's better to sell it as an amazing bargain, and recoup something.
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The something you recoup may well be less than the berthing fees owed, it which case it's far more economical to do a runner.
 
Hmm. A mate at my club did a few clean-up jobs around the dinghy pound and was given an abandoned Europe dinghy as his reward. Everyone went away happy - the boat is clean and complete and would have gone quickly if she'd been offered for sale...she deserved better than the original owner gave her. Some folk just can't be bothered I guess.
 
birdseye said:
Saw a report a little while back, maybe even onm here, of the problem they have in the USA with abandoned boats. Trouble is there is more money about and therefore more boats afloat yet grp doesnt ever rot so old knackered boiats that no one wants to use cant any longer be dragged up a muddy creek and left to die. So old boats like say Westerly 22s are a liability for the owner not an asset.

Its a problem at our club. We are blessed with lots of out of water storage space and this was rapidly filling up as people gave up using their boats and either couldnt sell at any price or didnt want the price they could sell at. We had to implement a sharply rising storage charge for boats that never launched. Several unsaleables have been chopped up and gone to landfill including one 30 ft concrete boat.

And once away from the fleshpots of the solent, prices for older british boats are falling. A Konsort was sold for 10k at auction, a Sadler 29 bilge bought for 13k for example. Both in half decent nick.

Can only see the process continuing. Boats are becoming like cars in that respect.
Click to expand...

Our club has seen this coming, and has put punitive very high fees on boats which seem to be used for long term stays on shore with no apparent work going on.

If a boat has to stay ashore for a summer for essential work, fair enough and special lifts in and out can be arranged; but people trying to use the club for storage get clobbered, rightly so !
 
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