Sunken Boat in Birmingham
Whilst the rest of Britain hunkered down to see out the Beast from the East blizzard Boatbreakers were busy in black country.
We were recently contacted by an Insurance company and asked to get up to Birmingham as soon as possible as there was a boat taking on water fast that needed to be disposed of. As you can see from the pictures when we got to her she was starting to resemble a Submarine.
After one of our team in Birmingham had been to conduct a site survey our plan was simple, get a heavy duty water pump into her to, try to patch up wherever she was taking on water, pull her along the canal and get her lifted out at the riverside car park just up from where she was tied.
Our pump made light work of getting the water out of her but because of the mass of rubbish inside the boat it was difficult to get to where the boat was taking on water. The team did manage to move her up close to the carpark which is eventually where she would be lifted out using a Hi-ab.
With the boat needing to be afloat when the Hi-ab was arriving the next day we enlisted the help of the Canal & River Rescue who were more than happy to help us make sure she wasn’t completely full of water when the lorry came.
The Hi-ab driver dipped his straps in and under the boat and lifted her clear of the canal, he must have been so delicate with the lift and delivery as when she got to us in Portsmouth it still had the beer cans and fold up seat laid on top.
The boat has very little if any value left in her and only the outboard was removed for use as spares. The rest will be crushed up and sent to our recycling centre.
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 23, 2018
Last Modified: June 28, 2022
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