GRP Boats and Death

[Guest]

Has anyone thought (or can tell me) What happens to GRP boats when they have come to the end of their useful working life? I have seen rotting wooden hulls, rusty old hulks lining just about every river and creek I've been up, but I have never seen a GRP hull that wasn't floating and tied to some mooring buoy. Is there some magical place that we (I) dont know of, where these things go to die. After all GRP has been about for many many years now and with osmosis and reckless Solent sailors SURELY there must be some that have holes in. Maybe theres a recycling plant (owned by ybw) somewhere. I dont know, maybe someone could enlighten me?

 

[charles_reed]

They end up in the corner of some hard - as yet there aren't many because the material is comparatively recent.
You'll see them all over the place in European yards.

 

[Guest]

Peter, I have a sneaking suspicion that they come into my possession. I just didn't realise that until now..

 

[andrewhopkins]

Tied to the pontoon in the marina

I go down all summer and the same boats are there every day with weed growing on the warps and fenders being squashed.

MDL's favourite customer.

 

[Guest]

I do not believe that GRP hulls are re-cycleable. But boy will they burn! This will of course result in significant air pollution.

 

[BarryD]

Don't they migrate inland to become river cruisers and are then left to sink at their morrings in silted up creeks on the broads?

Barry D.

 

[seahorse]

Re: GRP Boats - graveyard

Arn't they used to transport elephants to their final resting palce? Find one & you'll surely find the other!

 

[Guest]

I started a similar thread about a year ago and nobody could give me a straight answer, although there were a few bent ones!

 

[davel]

Re: GRP Boats - graveyard

Aha ! That explains why the Elephant Boatyard in Swanwick is so named !

 

[Guest]

Re: elephant Boatyard

I think I saw something about a serious fire at the redoubtable Elelephant Boatyard?
Any detail known?

 

[Col]

Re: elephant Boatyard

Tis true, not sure of the details though. Jack, Jack, you ok?

 

[oldharry]

Fried lugworms!

Interesting question - at the rate they are being turned out there will be a glut of damaged/worn out written off hulls before long. I put this question to my local yard last year(having an old wooden hull to dispose of).

The answers? Abandon it and leave it to the HM to dispose of? No not reponsible - anyway he might just trace it back to you and send you a hefty disposal bill.

Burn it? - No not allowed, as it would 'cause pollution, and might damage the invertebrate life in the mud' (quote Harbour office - ignoring the fact that several locals make a hefty living digging up and selling said invertebrates as bait...)

So what next? What we did - hire a skip (brought in by a diesel lorry). Hire a JCB (also diesel powered) and reduce it to matchwood, then load it into the skip. Lorry returns transports it all 25 miles to a local landfill site. Burn several gallons of diesel in the process. Additionally, for grp boats, hire man with (2 stroke powered) chainsaw to cut it all up into manageable chunks

What price pollution and a few fried lugworms!

 

[Guest]

Re: Fried lugworms!

Quite a few answers, but non that convince me of where they might go. How about this,, if the fire brigade use "Old cars" to practice on why don't we take all these old GRP boats out to sea and start to sink them, then let the RNLI practice. There must be some mileage in that idea!! and Harry, me being an ex Pro bait digger I bagsey you skipper them (fried lugworms indeed<s>)

 

[bedouin]

Re: Scuttle them?

I noticed a piece in one of the yachting mags recently about plans to dispose of (ex) HMS Scylla by sinking her in the channel somewhere. Perhaps we should do the same with old fibreglass hulls.

If we sink enough of them together they will make an artifical reef that will provide a superb haven for sealife.

 

[Dominic_Byers]

Re: elephant Boatyard

The full story can be found at the following URL

http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20010816094626ymnews.html

 

[brianrunyard]

I think a lot of them get purchased as a renovation project, then spend years in a marina or field somewhere, waiting for the new owner to get around to it.

 

[steveh]

Re: Scuttle them?

Yes, I think sinking them along with all the old worn out tyres would make some great reefs and stop the beam trawlers wiping everything out !