Unloved Boats - end of the line

An associated thread was on here when I first joined the Fora, along the lines of "what happens to all the passed-their-use-by-date craft?"
This was, I believe, aimed predominantly at GRP boats but I am still intrigued as to the disposal/laying-up/destruction/sinking etc of craft that are no longer needed, affordable-to-keep, forgotten about, impounded or what have you.
Without a significant disposal effort our creeks, marinas, yards, driveways, common-lands etc etc are going to get mighty clogged-up with very slowly deteriorating boats of all makes, materials, sizes and styles.

I doubt Khamsin will last forever and as tastes, preferences, life-styles, personal wealths change I would be sad to think of her very slowly decomposing as an eye-sore and nuisance; hazard even. Unlike wood or metal, GRP seems to have little, if any, recyclable properties.

Is there a recognised and active programme of disposal? If so, it's going to get very busy in the years to come.

And, what is the expected average life of our currently much loved and used GRP treasures?
 
Robert Wilson said:
... And, what is the expected average life of our currently much loved and used GRP treasures?
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Jissel's 48 years old and still going strong, but the prices for old boats are dropping fast. A new engine would cost about 3 times what the boat's worth now and that sort of thing is the limiting factor. I guess it's like cars. A boat like a Centaur is the Ford Cortina of the seas. The value drops and drops until you can hardly give 'em away, so most end up getting scrapped. Then, a few years down the line, that old banger that's hanging on by its rusty teeth undergoes a magical transformation into a classic, and suddenly, people are paying big money to restore them. Yes I know fibreglass doesn't rust, but the rest rots or breaks and suddenly you're looking at the equivalent of the that MOT failure for rust - £500 to repair, in a car worth £300. (1970s prices)
 
I wonder when Westerly will sadly reach this stage as they seem to be salvageable whatever the condition so are there other makes languishing which are capable of recuperation ?
 
Robert Wilson said:
..... Is there a recognised and active programme of disposal? If so, it's going to get very busy in the years to come. .... And, what is the expected average life of our currently much loved and used GRP treasures?
Click to expand...

It has been discussed on here that there are some GRP disposal companies in Europe. They take GRP waste streams from factories that make GRP stuff and convert it back into a bulk material which is used in other processes. IIRC the discussions stated that these are experimental industries funded by the EU. One of the uses was as a filler mixed into road surfaces. On the grans scale of things, there are probably not that many GRP yachts, to be honest.

Lakesailor showed that over a couple of weekends a small GRP yacht could be cut up and taken the local refuse centre for disposal by the council. The metal parts he sold to a scrap dealer. A very easy solution. The Clipper yacht on the South African beach was cut up easily enough i.e. you do not need special tools or expensive processes.

I have read that there are 1950s GRP boats still going strong. When researching articles on so called Osmosis, as I am an old GRP boat owner, one article suggested that over many hundred of years Glass Reinforced Polyester resins must hydrolyse as they are not stable materials i.e. one day all GRP will be gloop with glass bits mixed in. One thing for sure, when BS's steel boats have long oxidised to dust, or GRP ones will still be floating about.
 
Stemar said:
Jissel's 48 years old and still going strong, but the prices for old boats are dropping fast. A new engine would cost about 3 times what the boat's worth now and that sort of thing is the limiting factor. I guess it's like cars. A boat like a Centaur is the Ford Cortina of the seas. The value drops and drops until you can hardly give 'em away, so most end up getting scrapped. Then, a few years down the line, that old banger that's hanging on by its rusty teeth undergoes a magical transformation into a classic, and suddenly, people are paying big money to restore them. Yes I know fibreglass doesn't rust, but the rest rots or breaks and suddenly you're looking at the equivalent of the that MOT failure for rust - £500 to repair, in a car worth £300. (1970s prices)
Click to expand...

It's a funny wondering about worth. People buy land with a ruined house on it for say £100,000 and then build a new house around it with materials and labour massively exceeding that figure. At the end of the day they could just have bought a new house on a housing estate for much less.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
It's a funny wondering about worth. People buy land with a ruined house on it for say £100,000 and then build a new house around it with materials and labour massively exceeding that figure. At the end of the day they could just have bought a new house on a housing estate for much less.
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Never seen a Grand Designs on a housing estate though . I imagine there are certain GRP made brands such as Swan 56s which someone will always be prepared to lavish funds on to restore the decks and rigging etc .
 
ashtead said:
Never seen a Grand Designs on a housing estate though . I imagine there are certain GRP made brands such as Swan 56s which someone will always be prepared to lavish funds on to restore the decks and rigging etc .
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There is a fashion thing, maybe last decade, of taking old wooden yachts and restoring them into pristine condition, most are small up to 30' mark, very much a rich mans hobby.
 
ashtead said:
I wonder when Westerly will sadly reach this stage as they seem to be salvageable whatever the condition so are there other makes languishing which are capable of recuperation ?
Click to expand...

I think a lot of that is down to manufacturing technique. Many older GRP designs are massively over built. More modern ones, especially I suspect early cored construction is a different proposition. Restoring something where large parts of the core have rotted will be a different order of magnitude cost wise. At least if the basic structure is sound then you have a reasonable basis.

The other factor I suspect will be usability. One reason that boat sizes have drifted up has been that a 35 footer is much more practical to live aboard than a 25 footer, more space for living, for systems to add comfort and of course speed.

I could therefore see smaller, boats being less desirable to restore, especially if the core is rotten.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
It's a funny wondering about worth. People buy land with a ruined house on it for say £100,000 and then build a new house around it with materials and labour massively exceeding that figure. At the end of the day they could just have bought a new house on a housing estate for much less.
Click to expand...
That is very popular in a village near us.

But to put it in context, the old houses sit on large plots of about an acre. People build huge houses on them, triple garages, fountains in the drive type thing that must cost a million to build.

Similar sized plots are not really available elsewhere and not everyone wants to live cheek by jowl with their neighbour!
 
jac said:
I think a lot of that is down to manufacturing technique. Many older GRP designs are massively over built.
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My Colvic Countess falls into that category. It's getting on to be 35 years old but the construction is solid as a rock as they didn't know too much about GRP boat construction in the early 80's. The down side to that is that it makes it slow compared to modern similar sized boats.

Incidentally Ridge moved my boat away from the 'demolition' area, they said it was because the wanted the space, but it may have been that they didn't want a mix up with the boats in my pics! :)
 
ashtead said:
I wonder when Westerly will sadly reach this stage as they seem to be salvageable whatever the condition so are there other makes languishing which are capable of recuperation ?
Click to expand...

It comes down to they built about 12,500 boats and are still a respected manufacturer, plus still have an active owners association. Yes, some will beyond repair and will be destroyed, but the same applies to many other boats. With yachts like the Centaur, Fulmar, Discus and Oceanlord being recommended as boats to buy, the brand is kept alive. Also many owners do keep their boats in better than average condition, so making them more desirable.

So to answer your question, it will take longer than most other brands.
 
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