Swansong for Scrap Skipper 17

The Boat breaking team were local this week to collect a yacht from Emsworth. We had received a call from an owner who needed his Skipper 17 removed from Chichester Harbour. Unfortunately due to health issue he hadn’t been able to get to the boat for some time. It was now taking on water and was in danger of sinking.

Our team spoke with the Chichester Harbour team to see if they could bring the boat to somewhere we could collect. Emsworth was chosen as it was close to the mooring. The slipway there was also in a quiet part of the harbour so we could go about loading without having to rush.

To load a Skipper 17 would usually be fairly straightforward as they don’t weigh much. Our plan was to back the trailer in to the water and then winch the boat on. As we started to pull the boat up and on to the trailer we could feel that she was extremely heavy. In our experience this either means a keel is dragging, a rope is caught or she’s full of water. It was the later. But with the tide rising we couldn’t get around the boat to smash some drainage holes.

The boat breaking team managed to haul the boat half way up on to the trailer. We then tied the trailer to the tow hitch and dragged the whole lot clear of the water.

As the boat was now out of the water we could break some holes in the stern. Water soon began to stream out of the boat, it must of had over a tonne in there. For about ten minutes the water continued to pour, until finally we could man handle the little yacht.

With the boat now sitting flat on the trailer water began to pour out of the bow. We could now see why she had so much water inside her as there was a hole in the hull. Eventually the torrent stopped and we could move the boat on the trailer with ease.

Watched on by about 30 swans we strapped up the boat and made sure everything was secure. Then we headed back to the boat scrapyard in Portsmouth to recycle the boat.