Boatbreakers Hat-trick of Yacht Disposal

The Boatbreakers team have had an extremely busy spring so far. This week we even had three yacht collections in a single day. One small yacht was collected from Emsworth, a Mirage 28 was collected from Hullbridge in Essex and a long keel Wooden yacht was collected from Weymouth.

Usually we try to space out the collections but as they were being collected using 3 different methods we managed to keep it all in one day. It’s probably the first time we’ve had 3 larger boats come in on a single day.

The small yacht in Emsworth was an abandoned eBay purchase. Her owner has bought the boat with the hope of doing her up. However with a change in personal circumstances followed by Covid he decided to scrap his sailing plan. He didn’t even live locally so coming down to visit, use or work on the boat wasn’t an option. After discussing with our team he decided that the time was right to get her removed.

Our team liaised with Emsworth Yacht Harbour to get the boat brought in and lifted out. Steve was ready and waiting with the trailer and soon had her away for disposal. There was very little on board worth saving. All we did manage to remove was a few small sails and some fenders.

The Mirage 28 from Essex came to us after her owner no longer had the time to keep working on the boat. Also the owner was helping a relative with their boat so he wanted to focus his attention on just one. Our plan was simple, we sent a local Hiab truck to visit the boat yard she was in and remove her for disposal. As the boat was over two tonnes and 28ft she was too large for a trailer. Luckily though the boat had bilge keels so it sat comfortably on the back of the truck.

We did have some concerns about the access to the boatyard as the lane down to it did look quite narrow. But thankfully the whole process passed off without any problems.

This boat had been a long time coming. The Boatbreakers team had originally been asked to remove this damaged yacht from Castle Cove Sailing Club in early 2020. However like lots of sailing clubs they have lift in days when they hire in a crane. Sadly this fell during lockdown and the club had decided that the next lift in wouldn’t be until April 2021. The boat we were trying to pluck out was stuck at the back of the compound so would need the other boats moved before she could be lifted.

When the third lockdown was called we were worried that the job could then rumble on for another year. Luckily the club’s lift day coincided with lifting of restrictions and the success of the vaccine roll out. We sent a boat transport lorry to have the boat lifted on to, which then took the boat away for disposal.

We’re sure the sailing club are happy to see the back of the boat as they can now rent that space out for more boats and dinghies. Our team were also glad to see the job done as it’s been a sat on our to-do list for over a year.