Big Breaker From Bristol
In March our Boatbreakers yard in Portsmouth had a rather large visitor to the yard. For anyone driving along the M275 into Portsmouth she was easy to spot, laid up on the Scrap Quay.
‘Triton’ was a former Southampton Pilot Vessel, built of wood by Thorneycroft in 1956. She measured 14.5 metres, with a beam no greater than 4.0 metres. Draft was approx. 1.5 metres. She was fitted with two Rolls Royce diesel engines.
We received a call and email from Bristol Marina and Bristol Council to say they had a large boat that had recently sunk but had been recovered and was now sat in one of the marina’s large sheds. We sent a team to conduct a survey on the vessel, mainly so we knew what to expect and what we would be dealing with.
Once the arrangements for the lift on at Bristol were made we had a Boat Transport company collect the boat and bring her back to our yard in Portsmouth.
When the boat transport reached us complete with her escort vehicle we used the large floating US Army crane moored next to the Quay to lift her clear of the low-loader. We were lucky that we can call upon such a large crane as the boat ended up weighing over 30 tonnes.
The yard had already arranged for the large skips to be lined up ready for the disposal to begin. Our heavy machinery then got to work taking chunks out of the hull. The boat was clear of any oils or fuel as this was already removed in Bristol. Soon just the engines were left exposed and these were removed and stripped by a separate team.
After being filled the skips were then transferred to a waste disposal centre which sends the wood to be recycled. We had to be quick to complete the job as the boat was taking up so much valuable space on the Scrap Quay.
If you have a large boat that you wish to Scrap, please call us and we would be happy to give you a quote for disposal.
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: March 25, 2018
Last Modified: June 28, 2022
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