Abandoned Boats

American Problem With Abandoned Boats, By Travis Fain, WRAL statehouse reporter.

In between the stormy wind and showers this week our team have been out collecting abandoned boats. The boats in question were rowing boats left on a public pontoon.

Next time you visit a marina, boatyard, canal or even just a harbour see how many boats you see that you think are end of life.

Eastney beach in Portsmouth is a regular destination for our team. Sadly it has become a local dumping ground for unwanted project boats.

Canada is the latest country to try and tackle the problem of abandoned boats littering their waterways. It was recently announced by Transport Canada that they will be looking for people to take part in their Abandoned Boats Program.

Abandoned boats are a growing global problem. Boatbreakers focus our efforts on the UK and Europe but across the Atlantic there is a similar problem occurring. At Boatbreakers we often get enquiries from American boat owners who are looking to dispose of their end of life vessel in a responsible manner.

In 2015 we were contacted by a local marina that had a boat on a mooring which was in a sorry state. It was a catamaran that had clearly been neglected by her owners who had subsequently stopped paying their mooring fees.

As I was writing this post we actually had a fresh enquiry in that was exactly what this post is about. A boat in a marina near London has clearly been left un-maintained for too long and has now started to sink. This has made a tricky boat removal even trickier as now the boat has to be pumped out and re-floated.