Gaff schooner sunk in Brixham

[Rappey]

"Sea Beast was originally towed into Brixham harbour by a local fishing boat after having problems with the rudder at sea. During its several years on the pontoon, the boat was used by RNLI lifeboat volunteers to demonstrate sea rescue exercises"

So who actually owned it ?

 

[Gary Fox]

"Sea Beast was originally towed into Brixham harbour by a local fishing boat after having problems with the rudder at sea. During its several years on the pontoon, the boat was used by RNLI lifeboat volunteers to demonstrate sea rescue exercises"

So who actually owned it ?

Post #47

 

[Bajansailor]

@pvb have you got a link to the Blog by Mike and Pat?
They shut down the website some years ago.
And sadly El Lobo sank in Chaguaramas, Trinidad a year or two ago. Mike still lives in Trinidad I think.

 

[pvb]

@pvb have you got a link to the Blog by Mike and Pat?

You can read it here - Home - but many of the photos are no longer online.

 

[newtothis]

Mike Peyton and his succession of '*****stones'.

He used to quip that his final boat would be 'Tombstone'

 

[Frogmogman]

I think your last point - emboldened - identifies the problem. Ferrocement was seen as cheap and cheerful, and while that might have been the case for hulls, the hull is only a small part of the cost of a finished boat. A lot of people looked at the materials prices, thought "Wahay", slapped together a 40 or 50 foot hull ... and then discovered how much a single sheet winch for that size of boat costs.

I seem to remember being told, or reading somewhere, that this, rather than any fundamental issues, with Ferro Cement boats, was the root of the difficulty of insuring them.

Back in the 60s, too many over-ambitious builders of ferro cement boats, carried away by how cheap it was to build the hull, bit off more than they could chew. Then, unable to afford to finish their boats off nicely, or to fit them out properly, ended up with unsaleable eyesores. Failing to find buyers, a not insignificant number resorted to insurance fraud as an alternative, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of the insurance industry (which has a notoriously long memory).

 

[Sandy]

Just come to the West Mersea waterfront and you will not be able to count them on the fingers of your two hands.

Luckily nothing on this scale. Most are under 20ft.

Sadly every, back water, creek, river and boat yard has them. Sadly, most are not as impressive as this one. It was not there when I was a child and does need a chainsaw taken to it.

 

[dgadee]

Sadly every, back water, creek, river and boat yard has them. Sadly, most are not as impressive as this one. It was not there when I was a child and does need a chainsaw taken to it.

View attachment 108911

That and the location would do as a liveaboard.

 

[dgadee]

Report from 1970s on fatigue using electron microscope:

https://calhoun.nps.edu/bitstream/handle/10945/17016/fatigueofferroce00simp.pdf

Like any good researcher: "This study has raised more questions than it has answered." (p49)

 

[Fimacca]

I spoke to the owner who bought it for a song end of last summer. Nice fella. he and his son were emptying the boat of crap and intended to remove the deck structure which was rotten. he claimed the hull and rigging were good. To be fair, the rig looked better than the rest of the boat. He invited me inside to see, but I avoided that.
he wanted to sail it to the pacific islands where his wife (?) was from. I just thought he was a day dreamer who bit off a big chunk of boat and failed to realise how much it would cost him.
The HM had allowed him to tie up for nothing. Dangerous game to play torbay council ............result, and 8 months later......ouch.
Lesson for a harbourmaster here..........

 

[sarabande]

Sadly every, back water, creek, river and boat yard has them. Sadly, most are not as impressive as this one. It was not there when I was a child and does need a chainsaw taken to it.

View attachment 108911

I remember talking with an old fisherman at Barnstaple, and asking about the number of wooden skeletons parked in the backwaters of the Taw and Torridge.

He shuffled his feet a bit then said that it was the right and proper thing to allow fishing boats to die naturally and return eventually to the sea.

Of course, that could be a cheaper option than dismantling and burning them. Perhaps Fisherman knows about the idea ?

 

[James_Calvert]

In Salcombe there used to be a number of old retired hulks on the shores of the Bag.

Their ultimate fate was to be burnt in situ for the metal still in them.

 

[DownWest]

In Salcombe there used to be a number of old retired hulks on the shores of the Bag.

Their ultimate fate was to be burnt in situ for the metal still in them.

There was a confession in the back page of PBO from a guy that was looking for some extra cash while young and skint. Owner of a hulk told hom to burn it for the bronze fastings, so he went out in the gloom one evening and applied some parrafin and a match. Next day he went back for the pickings, only to find they were iron and not even worth the parrafin he had spent some shillings on.
Bit later he sees the 'owner' who was wondering when he was going to burn it, better get a move on as the one next to his had been burned....
So he went back with a bit more parrafin and made a nice profit.
Looking at the name at the bottom, I realised I had sorted some stuff on his engine the year before and his wife was hon sec of the CA.

 

[trevbouy]

A lifting platform with a HIAB has been moored up alongside. Seems recovery may be in the offing.

 

[dom]

A lifting platform with a HIAB has been moored up alongside. Seems recovery may be in the offing.

View attachment 109422

Let's just hope the HIAB doesn't decide to keep it company

 

[Gary Fox]

A Hiab? Best of British luck, Sea Beast tripped out Sov Harbour's 50-tonne hoist..

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

A Hiab? Best of British luck, Sea Beast tripped out Sov Harbour's 50-tonne hoist..

To pull the piles out maybe?

 

[Gary Fox]

To pull the piles out maybe?

Aha, well spotted
Actually those are the workboat's legs I think. I'm quite curious to see how it will be done, and the wreck might break up when being lifted as well.

 

[longjohnsilver]

A lifting platform with a HIAB has been moored up alongside. Seems recovery may be in the offing.

View attachment 109422

Are they planning on breaking it up in situ?

 

[trevbouy]

Those are the platform stabilising legs. I'm assuming they are breaking it up as the HIAB is rated 8 ton I believe. There appears to be two power packs onboard(?) perhaps one is for a breaker?
See what tomorrow brings.