Scrap a Boat

The only way was Essex for the Boatbreakers team this week as we travelled to Burnham on Crouch & Colchester to collect a Rib-Eye Rib for disposal.

The Boatbreakers team were on the road again this week. We had a call about a boat up north that had recently sunk on her mooring in a marina. The boat was a Norman 23 that was now back afloat at Uplands Marina, Northwich, just south of Liverpool.

One thing that the Boatbreakers team have learnt is that scrap boats never come quietly. Even a small speedboat on a trailer can cause problems as we found out this week. We were asked to remove a boat from Trafalgar Wharf in Portchester by solicitors who were dealing with the estate of a gentleman who'd sadly passed away.

One of the perks of collecting boats from all over the country is that we get to visit some great places and meet some lovely people. Last week we were asked to come and collect an old Shetland from Milton Keynes. All we knew about her was that the Suzuki engine was probably dead and she’d been moored at the end of the garden for a number of years without any use.

This week the Boatbreakers team hit the road and headed for Essex to dispose of an old wooden yacht that was sitting in a couple's garden. The boat's position in the orchard area of the garden meant getting a hi-ab or any heavy lifting gear was out of the question.

There's nothing like a long haul road trip to welcome a team member back from a holiday. With Luke still enjoying the jet lag that follows a 12 and a half hour flight we set off at 5am and headed north for Scarborough to collect a Scrap Boat.

At Boatbreakers we always like the change of scenery of chopping up a boat on site as they usually mean visiting an interesting place where you wouldn't expect a boat to be. Often it will be a garden and we'll hear stories of how the owner has always planned to finish the project and go sailing but one thing led to another until we arrived with a disc cutter.

The UK has endured a pretty terrible winter with plenty of rain, storms and even a beast from the east. In early April we had a call from an Insurance company that wanted us to collect a boat that one storm had gotten the better of.

In March, our Boatbreakers yard in Portsmouth had a rather large visitor to the yard. For anyone driving along the M275 into Portsmouth she was easy to spot, laid up on the Scrap Quay.

We were recently contacted by an Insurance company and asked to get up to Birmingham as soon as possible as there was a boat taking on water fast that needed to be disposed of. As you can see from the pictures when we got to her she was starting to resemble a Submarine.

The Boatbreakers team were asked by an insurance company to come and remove a motorboat that had broken free from her mooring, washed up on a beach and been tied up against the sea wall in Plymouth.

Winter really is coming for Boatbreakers. With the conclusion of the Southampton Boat Show the summer season slams shut and it's now that boat owners face the decisions on what to do with their boat over the winter.