How do you scrap a boat?

[Paulg25]

Been looking at boats for a couple of months in view to buying one as a potential live aboard and occasional coastal cruiser.
I have made the following observations:-

It needs to be at least 35' long, even for single occupancy.
Any thing over 42' is going to be difficult to manage when it comes to docking/mooring in a marina with no help.
It will need a pair of engines of at least 145hp. (on shafts).
Older boats tend to have more interior space... newer ones are sportier, hence seem to have lower front cabins.
We all have our own views on what the interior layout should be. For instance, having seating for 8 people is a waste of space for me.
An aft cabin is a must.


I had narrowed it down, in my head, to a Birchwood or a Broom and one in need of interior improvements.

I have seen, on line, a Tremlett 42 (not heard of before) for sale. I cannot get to view it before the sale ends.
Owner not responding to emails.
It appears to be in need of a lot of attention from the few pictures on line even though it is being lived on.
Advert says engines are good.

Thinking of offering what the engines are worth.

If my bid is successful but it turns out to be a heap of junk, how do I scrap it?

 

[Wansworth]

From some practical experience you need good safety clothing,goggles etc.Hire a skip and plan dismembering itcheck with local authorites about waste disposal,batteries etc fuel etcYou need an electric Sabre sword and reduce the boat to flattish panels in handy sizees ,just chop away at it.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Or sell it on to another Mug

 

[Poignard]

I saw a GRP boat being scrapped in Emsworth Yacht Harbour. It was sawn into manageable chunks with a chain saw and dumped in a skip.

I have also seen one being scrapped in a yard in Brittany. A skip was parked next to it and a man in a mechanical digger just battered it to bits and lifted it into the skip.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

I remember one being manhandled onto a bonfire at the boat club my grandparents were members of.

 

[jrudge]

eBay for £1 no reserve will be cheaper than scrapping. Will. E commercial waste which in London where I live I think is £240 a tonne. Ouch

 

[DownWest]

Might you look more carefully at the purchase?? Expecting to scrap it is a bit premature..

 

[Sneaky Pete]

There is money in scrap. Remove that which can be sold or has some value i.e. metal, engine, fixtures and fittings. Fiberglass cannot be re-cycled and will end up in landfill. There goes your environmental footprint.

 

[TwoHooter]

At METS (the big marine trade event in Amsterdam) in recent years there have been seminars about boat scrapping. The consensus opinion seems to be that it is only a matter of time before there is an international agreement which will require all boats over a certain size to be registered and tracked in such a way that abandonment in creeks, scuttling, or disposal by other unauthorised methods will be made impossible. I'll believe it when I see it.

BTW there is no money in ferrous scrap including most stainless steel in the UK at the moment. Marginally better to separate it and take it to a merchant but if the amounts are small (on boats they will be) and you have to hire a van or pay someone's wages it is cheaper to put it in a skip and send it to landfill. Regrettable, and not acceptable from an environmental point of view, but true.

 

[stelican]

From some practical experience you need good safety clothing,goggles etc.Hire a skip and plan dismembering itcheck with local authorites about waste disposal,batteries etc fuel etcYou need an electric Sabre sword and reduce the boat to flattish panels in handy sizees ,just chop away at it.

Bring back wooden boats!

 

[TwoHooter]

Bring back wooden boats!

Well, maybe. There is a company called Accsys which produces Accoya® solid acetylated wood and I have been wondering whether it might work in the marine environment. On the other hand the reason old wooden boats are easy to dispose of is that they slowly rot away to nothing, and a wood product that does not rot would be no easier to dispose of than plastic (FRP).

 

[Bandit]

In Guernsey wooden boats break up and to wood recycling or landfill.
GRP previously break up or put through a shredder and landfill.
Remove all metal you can, fuel tanks fuel etc.
Both disposal routes here are expensive!
If you can sell it for a £1 or more and get the paperwork done so it is no longer yours, also get it taken away.

 

[gordmac]

It is a large boat, attacking it with a chainsaw wouldn't be a good idea! It is a nice boat, would be a shame to scrap it, can't imagine how bad it would be for scrapping to be a sensible option.

 

[Poignard]

It is a large boat, attacking it with a chainsaw wouldn't be a good idea! It is a nice boat, would be a shame to scrap it, can't imagine how bad it would be for scrapping to be a sensible option.

The ones I saw being broken up had been abandoned by their owners, who could not easily be traced. Storage charges had mounted up with no prospect of their being recovered. The yard was losing potential income because the abandoned boats were occupying land that could have been used by other boats.

The yard had every right to get rid of them. It made perfect sense to break them up.

 

[TwoHooter]

It doesn't matter how big it is, or how "nice" it is, if a boat is in poor condition it is very easy for the cost of refurbishment to exceed the value after refurbishment, even without allowing for the time, hard work, and heartache required to actually refurbish it. I have experience of this dilemma in the field of heritage railways where a full rebuild of a big locomotive can cost 7 figures but only the famous ones ever change hands for that sort of money. I know people who have lost money refurbishing old houses. I know someone who bought a classic car at auction and got caught badly by misleading invoices which suggested it was in good condition whereas the truth was that it had been badly damaged in a shunt and the damage just covered up - the cost of bringing it back to concours condition was eye-watering and took ages. I'm all in favour of historic boats like Dunkirk Little Ships or 1930s racing yachts or paddle steamers being restored and can understand why someone would turn a blind eye to the cost for something like that, but it makes no sense to spend more on an ordinary mass-produced motorboat than it is worth after the job is complete (if it ever is complete). I sometimes look at our boat and wonder what it would cost to bring it back up to first class condition if we neglected it for, say, 3 or 4 years. There's a motorboat in our marina that must have been worth £200k at one point but the owner has been ill for years, it's green inside and out, the "teak" is rotting, and I doubt it's worth anything now, a classic example of a boat where the cost of restoring it would probably exceed the value.