Yacht Wrecks On The Rise Across the UK
Yacht Wrecks littering beaches, harbours, rivers and canals have become commonplace across the UK. With yachts losing any value they had people can quite simply wash their hands of the boat.
Within a mile of our Boatbreakers yard in Portsmouth, there are currently three yacht wrecks at least. One yacht was blown off her mooring during a storm at the beginning of 2018. The yacht hit the rocks and was looted overnight by local thieves. By the time the owners made it to the boat anything of value had been stolen.
In this case the owners went to the local paper to complain about the crime. However as the boat wasn’t insured the cost to recover the boat are down to the owner. Not surprisingly the boat has since been sat on the rocks until eventually, the local council will have the buck passed to them.
If you ever sail through Portsmouth Harbour and you are heading towards Trafalgar Wharf or Port Solent keep an eye out for the boat. The boat is up on the rocks opposite Portchester Castle.
Another yacht wreck in the area is next to the local Boating and Angling club. It had been on a mooring near Whale Island but over the course of a few weeks, it began to sink.
After sinking when the tide was up all you could see was the mast poking out of the water. The yacht stayed there sunken on the mooring for a number of weeks. Slowly it turned from white to a shade of greeny brown.
After a month spent under the water, the boat was eventually pumped out at low tide. It was then towed across to the foreshore next to the boat club’s pontoon. It’s there that the yacht wreck has sat since summer 2018.
Written By: Luke Edney
Luke completed a journalism degree in Brighton University and fortunately for us uses this in his communications, Facebook posts, Tweets and emails to tell all our enquirers and followers what we are up to. Without Luke we would be lost, he runs the office, keeps us organised and is like a terrier and never lets a tricky boat disposal job go un-photographed or Tweeted about.
He also manages all of our enquiries passing them to whoever in the team is the best suited to deal with it. We are teaching Luke how to drive a motorboat or sail a yacht so while he’s learning we suggest you keep out of the Solent!
When he’s not at work he’s a massive football fan (his Dad used to play for Portsmouth FC years ago) and seems to know everything there is to know about any player, anywhere. Next time you ring and he answers, think of a tricky football trivia question and ask him
Date Published: April 18, 2019
Last Modified: June 28, 2022
Related Articles
Published On: October 10th, 2019Four burnt boats have been left after a fire at a Hayling Island Marina. We were informed by the local dive teams in Portsmouth who have been asked to help raise two of the burnt boats that had sunk.
Published On: July 26th, 2017Abandoned 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.
Published On: August 15th, 2017At Boatbreakers we were recently contacted by someone studying for his masters who thesis is based on the issue of boat disposal in the UK and the current End of Life processes in place to deal with old boats.
Published On: August 8th, 2022Boatbreakers has once again been featured in Practical Boat Owner Magazine. The feature talks about end of life abandoned boats in the September edition. The magazine is in shops now (From August 4th).