Nicholas123
N/A
The Environment Agency would'nt like it & I would have to pack them in pretty high to return a profit
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Scrapping old fiberglass boats
- Thread starter Nicholas123
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The Environment Agency would'nt like it & I would have to pack them in pretty high to return a profit
prv
Well-Known Member
If you're selling it for pennies just to get rid of it, take all that stuff off. It's not really going to help with the kind of sale you're after; at best someone might buy the package just for the good bits if they think they have a way to get rid of the boat, and then all you've done is given away your cooker/outboard/loo etc.
Pete
late-night-lochin
Well-Known Member
Although not totally related to the original question, I think there is a potential problem looming here.
As we all know, GRP boats won't rot and become beyond economic repair like wooden boats could.
There are still likely to be plenty of people prepared to take on an old up to 10meter(ish) boat (motor of sailing) because it's cheap (compared to a new or newish one), it gives them the seaworthyness and acommodation they need and they can just about afford to berth it and run it. A boat of that size is also a reasonably practical propesition for restoring and upgrading as a "love" job.
My concern is the current plethora of 50ft plus boats.
If somebody gave me such a boat; I couldn't afford to keep it, let alone run it. Also, I can't see why anyone who could afford to run a boat of that size would actually want to buy an old tired one (maybe, if it was an already restored classic).
The phrase "white elephant" springs to mind and I wouldn't mind betting that quite a few of these end up being unceremoniously scrapped.
Nicholas123
N/A
I have been wrestling with this & it seems to me that nobody in their right mind is going to buy it with the stuff removed because it would cost several thousand pounds to restore.Similarly even with the 'bits' left on it would cost well over a thousand pounds to whip into any sort of shape.If I leave it as it is it stands the chance of the dodgiest keel collapsing & involving me in a several thousand pound salvage operation.If I turn to a professional scrapper to solve the problem,again a very hefty bill.
The only solution it seems to me is to turn it into a motor boat.This can be done for a few hundred quid & it will make a quite attractive vessel for going away weekends & just pottering,maybe I will even be able to sell her in the spring & get back to what it is really all about for me.Sailing & adventure.
So that's the plan.I am shortly going to become the proud owner of a motor boat
electrosys
Well-Known Member
= fishing boat (will command a premium). "A rose by any other name", etc.
prv
Well-Known Member
Who says only people in their right mind are looking?
Seriously, the eBay £1 disposal route relies on someone making the foolish decision to buy a "bargain" hull thinking they can gain a cheap boat by refitting it themselves. They're wrong, but that's their problem. I wouldn't have any issue with that provided I'd described the sale accurately.
Only question is how many people disposed to making that foolish decision are out there. Possibly not all that many in the current climate. Not advocating this as a surefire method, just an option that's there.
Pete
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
Well there are some barm-pots trying to sell rubbish boats (piles of scrap) for big money. They don't get any bids, however many times they re-list.
But starting at £1 with no reserve, bound to go. It's just that the buyer may have "Buyer Regret" before getting around to collecting it.
Perhaps a £39 starting bid?
But starting at £1 with no reserve, bound to go. It's just that the buyer may have "Buyer Regret" before getting around to collecting it.
Perhaps a £39 starting bid?
penfold
Well-Known Member
Flog it on ebay(without the gear on as you'll just be giving money away) or get yourself a box of disposable masks, a 9" grinder/sabre saw with a box of blades and cut it into bits small enough to cart to the council tip(sorry; recycling centre). A boat that size will take about a day to chop up, I've done a 14' cathedral hull dory and it took 4 hours to reduce it to bits small enough for the wheelybin.
It won't be worth much more as a converted mobo than as a raggy in need of repair.
It won't be worth much more as a converted mobo than as a raggy in need of repair.
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Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
If it still has the rig and sails and (with luck) a lead keel, you could make £300 or more from flogging the bits off.
Don't use a chain saw (I did, never again) use an angle grinder, much better when I moved onto that.
Put a tarp on the floor. It'll be much easier to collect the dust afterwards. Don't do it in an urban environment. You'll become Mr Unpopular.
Don't use a chain saw (I did, never again) use an angle grinder, much better when I moved onto that.
Put a tarp on the floor. It'll be much easier to collect the dust afterwards. Don't do it in an urban environment. You'll become Mr Unpopular.
Nicholas123
N/A
You guys ar'nt making this easy.Just repairing the keels I reckon would set me back upwards of a a thousand pounds with a prodigious amount of hard labour & then you have got a 50 odd year old boat that needs new sails & before long mast & rigging main hatch & probably rudder & other stuff.in other words she is just plain worn out.I have had a wonderful time with her but now it is time to move on.
She has cast iron keels & is built like a tank so cutting her up in a boat yard that I suspect the owners & my fellow neighbours would object to even if it were possible would still set me back several hundred.(a neighbour informs me that the local tip would'nt take his sons fiberglass remnants) & also though this is going to make me sound soppy which maybe I am.I have had a wonderful time with that boat & as a motor boat she would still be an attractive little vessel in which to go & spend weekends away.
I think it would break my heart to go down the angle grinder route while she still seems to have a future & I am even getting quite interested in the motor boat (sorry fishing/good all rounder) type project route.
The idea of dumping her on Ebay & some poor unsuspecting slob is just to depressing.As it is I should have a pretty good vessel (though possibly with some curious characteristics) to go forward into the future with & maybe still the potential to transfer the bits onto a more suitable sailing vessel in the future.Who knows?
I have the money to buy another little sailing boat now & the future beckons..........
Thankyou for all your input.
She has cast iron keels & is built like a tank so cutting her up in a boat yard that I suspect the owners & my fellow neighbours would object to even if it were possible would still set me back several hundred.(a neighbour informs me that the local tip would'nt take his sons fiberglass remnants) & also though this is going to make me sound soppy which maybe I am.I have had a wonderful time with that boat & as a motor boat she would still be an attractive little vessel in which to go & spend weekends away.
I think it would break my heart to go down the angle grinder route while she still seems to have a future & I am even getting quite interested in the motor boat (sorry fishing/good all rounder) type project route.
The idea of dumping her on Ebay & some poor unsuspecting slob is just to depressing.As it is I should have a pretty good vessel (though possibly with some curious characteristics) to go forward into the future with & maybe still the potential to transfer the bits onto a more suitable sailing vessel in the future.Who knows?
I have the money to buy another little sailing boat now & the future beckons..........
Thankyou for all your input.
electrosys
Well-Known Member
Believe it or not, there are folk out there who are seriously contemplating building their own boats completely from scratch: from a pile of very expensive marine plywood .... And there are several designers out there making a living from selling such plans/ kits etc. to those folk.
For just a quid, think of all that money you'll be saving somebody !
Even if a buyer with unrealistic dreams comes to realise that fitting out a bare hull costs far more in time and hard cash than they'd bargained for - it's a cheap lesson to be learned at just a quid.
Unless you really want to keep this boat, I'd whack it on Ebay, and see what happens. For just the price of a listing, it would be an educational exercise, if nowt else. What have you got to lose ?
penfold
Well-Known Member
If you are going to convert to a mobo the scrap price is good at moment, so you should net a good wedge from weighing in the keels.
Nicholas123
N/A
Converting to a motor boat has turned out to be more trouble than I had expected so am going to try & sell her.
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