Boat Breaking in East Sussex

This week we were Boat Breaking in East Sussex. The Boatbreakers team hit the road and headed for Eastbourne to collect a small beached yacht. She was a Sailfish 18 that had been sat on the beach for a number of years. Sadly she had been trashed and vandalised by locals who had helped themselves to anything of value.

Her owner was due to move away from the area. So he had made the decision to have her removed. Our plan was to simply turn up, winch the boat on and be gone but we had to be slightly inventive. Actually doing any boat breaking in East Sussex wasn’t part of the plan. However when we first got to the boat we realised she was completely full of water.

There was then only one place to start, and that was with the wrecking bar. Steve set about breaking as many holes in the boat as possible for the water to drain. With the boat full it couldn’t be pushed by hand. There was probably over a tonne of water inside her that had to be drained.

Whilst the water poured from her we began to line up the trailer with the boat ready to winch her on. After about half an hour the water was now down to a trickle. Thanks to our boat breaking in East Sussex efforts the boat’s weight had been significantly reduced.

The team then began the process of slowly winching her up and on to the roller trailer. Despite being much lighter the boat still put up some resistance. Eventually we managed to get her up on to the trailer and safely strapped down.

We were also asked to remove the old trailer that was sat next to the boat. Steve quickly chopped it up in to more manageable chunks and these were placed inside the yacht. The boat was loaded and the beach was clear, it was now time to head for home. Or so we thought…

As we slowly exited along the Eastbourne Promenade there was one final obstacle we hadn’t been warned about. It seems our boat breaking in East Sussex mission had one last hurdle. The exit to the car park had an overhead barrier. We tried in vain to contact the council to have the barrier opened but with no luck we had a different plan. Steve fired up the cutting gear and we quickly sliced off the roof and pulpit.

By the skin of our teeth the boat now made it out of the car park and we were on the road Portsmouth. Boat breaking in East Sussex hadn’t be the original plan but when barriers pop up we had to change the plans.