Neglected Boat Collection
The Boatbreakers team have been busy at the turn of the new year collecting neglected boats. Our first batch have come out of the River Itchen in Southampton. Two of boats we had to collect had both been sunk on their moorings. The third boat was a yacht that was still floating but had been left by her former owner.
On the surface the neglected yacht didn’t look in bad condition. This is usually the case with fibre reinforced plastic boats as the material is so durable and strong. With the neglected boat being left for so long on her mooring it is always expected that there will be lots of growth on the hull.
In most cases a boat owner would have their boat out each year. Then have any growth blasted off and the hull re-anti-fouled. Most old neglected boats will have lots of sea life to remove when the boat is lifted. Our team were surprised by the amount of fouling on this hull.
Thick like Coral
As she was lifted out the hull almost looked like a thatched roof. It was thick with a coral like tube worm. Where the strops had crushed it in you could see the depth of the rest. Apparently this type or growth is common in Southampton water due to the number of cruise liners in the area.
When the neglected yacht was loaded we took some pictures to share on the Boat Scrapyard Group. Our members shared our amazement at the state she was in. Here are some of their comments…
A Real Menace
“Looks like it was left as an artificial reef”, “Those tube worms in brackish water are a real bloody menace. They look soft but they really aren’t”, “The owner should get a carbon credit for that”, “Poundland introduce new range of marine anti-fouling paints”.
It took Steve a good half an hour to scrape off the majority of the worm. We probably remove quarter of a ton’s worth of weight from the neglected boat. The yacht is now safely chopped up in the boatyard in the sky so won’t be clogging up anymore waterways. If someone had tried to sail her with that much tube worm it would have been like dragging an anchor along.
