Westerly Nomad Yacht Collected for Disposal from London

One of our latest jobs was to collect a Westerly Nomad from the Grand Union Canal. The yacht is not the sort of boat you would expect to find on the inland waterways. However there was no mast or rigging and she’d been converted into a little live-aboard.

We believe the former owner was planning on moving abroad so he wanted to get a quick solution for the boat. She was moored in Packet Boat Marina which is near Uxbridge. The marina is just off of the Grand Union canal which connects London to Birmingham.

The Boatbreakers team have had to move boat in this area before and we knew that places to get a boat lifted out were limited. Previously we have had boats lifted at a yard in Iver which is on the Slough arm of the canal. For the most part this arm is dead straight and extremely quiet. The first time we took a narrowboat along there we were worried we might run aground or tangle in the greenery.

From Packet Boat to Iver it was a dead straight 2 mile chug along the canal. Luckily with no locks to worry about. Our plan was a simple one. Send a team of two people to put an engine on the boat and move her along the canal to Iver. Then she would be lifted by our Hiab which was due to arrive later that day.

Our Boatbreakers team took a small outboard up to the boat and clipped it on to the outboard bracket. After checking that the boat was safe to move we set off from the marina and on to the canal.

One of the joys of the inland waterways is how peaceful it is. The water is extremely still and as you are only moving at walking pace it’s a relaxing experience. With quieter arms of the canal system you also benefit from seeing the nature undisturbed. On the two mile chug along the canal we saw Herons, Fish and even Kingfishers.

After about half an hour we soon had the boat up to the yard in Iver. This was all done by 8:30am as we wanted to make sure we had enough time to move the boat incase something went wrong. Also we had sent the team up early from Portsmouth so we could avoid the morning rush.

Once the boat was secured at alongside at the yard she was being lifted out from our team salvaged what they could. We managed to remove portholes, sails, steps and a generator. These salvaged boat parts were then sold on through our Boat Scrapyard group.

The team then set off back to Portsmouth and the Westerly Nomad was collected by the Hiab later that day. As the boat was pre-stripped it went straight in to be crushed once it reached the scrapyard.