Scrap Yacht in a Car Park Collected From Lymington

Our most recent job was a small scrap yacht collection from a car park in Lymington. What could be simpler than a small yacht in a car park? Surely this one couldn’t put up a fight, could it?

The answer is yes it could! Just because a boat is small it doesn’t necessarily mean the job will be easy. We were recently contacted by someone who’s boat was sat in a housing estate car park. One positive of collecting a yacht in a car park is that the ground should at least be solid.

We often have to collect yachts in car parks and we know the trailers won’t sink into the ground. Plus most car parks are fairly big so we have room to get the trailer close enough to the boat.

The unfinished project boat had been in the car park for 12 years. When we were sent the pictures through our Scrap Calculator we could see her size against a neighbouring car. From the pictures, we could also see a trailer that she was sat on. Although it didn’t look to be in good condition.

With all small boats on trailers, we aim to turn up with our own flatbed trailer. We then winch the boat/trailer up onto our trailer and strap the boat down. This gives us peace of mind that the trailer is road safe for the journey back to Portsmouth.

If we thought that the trailer or boat wouldn’t be able to be moved we would have been forced to either send a Hi-ab or as a last resort cut up on site.

The team banked on the fact that we would be able to get enough life out of the trailer to get the boat winched on. When we arrived in Lymington the first challenge was negotiating a narrow entrance to the car park area. Luckily for us the borders either side of the entrance were just bushes. If they had been walls it would have been slightly hairy.

We then soon realised the trailer, or what was left of it, was not going to be any help. As soon as we lifted the front of the boat by hand one of the trailer wheels snapped off. Our contingency plan was to use a motorbike jack lift to get the boat just off the ground enough to winch the boat up onto the trailer.

After a few re-positions of the jack we eventually managed to wriggle the keels up onto the trailer’s ramps. From there she was easy enough to winch up with the help of the jack under the broken trailer.

Luckily for us the boat didn’t weigh a great deal so we could give her some gentle encouragement by hand. With the boat up on the trailer attached a few straps to keep her on there. There wasn’t much chance of her moving though as the trailer had really given up the ghost.

The next challenge was to then get our trailer with the yacht back out of the car park. Because of the boundary walls of the car park we had to be careful how we positioned the trailer. With the help of the owner we pushed and pulled the trailer into an angle where the truck could be attached.

After some careful manoeuvring and plenty of good fortune we slowly got the trailer through the entrance to the car park. The only casualty was a couple of branches from the border bush. By this time we had an audience as the neighbours came out to see the back of the yacht in the car park.

When the trailer was safely through the entrance and out onto the road we then attached a few more straps to her. It’s always better to be on the cautious side no matter how small the yacht.

The team had a quick pit stop on the way home to grab some lunch but it as straight back to Portsmouth to be crushed for the small yacht from the car park. There was literally nothing of any value worth taking off of the boat.

If you have a boat in a car park or rotting away in your garden it could be time to scrap. Just call us on 02392 984666 or use our Scrap Calculator.