Abandoned Yacht in a Sailing Club

An abandoned yacht is a hot topic at the moment. The mainstream media has finally started to pick up on the issue and abandoned boats are finally starting to be talked about. When you think of an abandoned boat you might not always think of them as being in a sailing club or boat yard.

Our latest collection was just that. The owner had brought his boat ashore into the sailing club compound and after a few years disappeared. The club tried in vain to get him to remove the boat but eventually they decided to get legal ownership of the boat and scrap her.

It’s always a shame when this happens. The club have to use their funds to deal with someone else’s problem. This in turn effects the club’s ability to invest in their facilities. All because of an unscrupulous character leaving them with a costly problem.

The reason scrap costs can get into the thousands is mainly because of two factors. The transport is usually the biggest expense which can’t be avoided. Transport companies don’t care that a boat is in for recycling. They are just charging to get it from A to B.

Then once the abandoned boat is back at the boat scrapyard it will cost to get rid of the eventual waste. So before you start every boat will have fixed costs.

For abandoned yachts it can always be tricky to see who’s responsibility it is to deal with. But like fly tipping, if it ends up on your land is most probably your bill to pay. The problem of abandonments of boats is also aided by how lenient the registration rules are for boat ownership around the UK coast. If someone abandoned a car it could usually be traced to her former owner. However it can be much more tricky with a boat.

The boat that was abandoned in the sailing club was another Newbridge yacht. They seem to be the most popular boat for use to scrap as we have broken many over the years. It was well beyond economic repair. Her bilge keels were barely hanging on. It looked like the owner had tried to foam around them for stability. The boat would have been dangerous if it had ever made it back into the water.

Our Hiab lorry was dispatched to collect the boat and bring her back for disposal. Anything worth saving will be removed from the boat and re-sold. Then all of the recyclable material that we can get from her will be recycled.