Final Farewell for Family Yacht

The Boat breakers team were in Lymington to collect a much loved family yacht. We believe that the boat was built by the owner and owned for the last 45 years. Her owner had decided that his sailing days were up and it was time to arrange for the boat to be collected for disposal.

He described the boat as a Hornblower 24 called “Sail Away”. She was a wooden hull bilge keel yacht that had been lifted out a Haven Quay. We’re not sure if she had recently come into a state of disrepair. All our team were told was that she had been lifted out and the engine and mast were due to be removed. The owner wanted to keep hold of those items. Just to try and sell on and recoup some of the scrap costs.

Our team will often suggest this to boat owners to help them whittle away at the costs of disposal. We can sometimes discount down our costs to take into account valuable items on board. But it’s always more rewarding for the owner if they can get full retails value for items rather than our trade offer. It can often make the disposal process either more of a no brainer than it already is. In this case there wasn’t too much to save. With the owner removing the engine it was a simple hull only collection for us.

The Hiab truck was sent down to Lymington and the boat was plucked out of the boat yard. We’re sure that the boat yard will be happy to see the old yacht go. These are the type of boats that are always a danger of being dumped with a yard. Especially once an owner has stripped all the good bits. However as this was a boat owned for by a single owner we were sure he wouldn’t consider dumping. Or giving the boat away for nothing to someone else who might.

Her owner was also caught paying a daily storage rate for the boat to be in the yard. We believe it was £7 a day which doesn’t sound a great deal. But it does add up to £2,555 a year. That’s a noticeable hole in his pocket for a boat that he no longer would be using. His disposal bill was also much lower than this figure. So scrapping her made good financial sense too.

We are sure their was a tug at the heart strings as the disposal was confirmed. But as we reminded the owner, it’s all the great family memories on the boat he has to focus on. Some people won’t be lucky enough to have a boat for 45 years. So this one had a great run.