Where Old Boats Go to Die...

[sailvayu]

Breaks my heart

Shred of the Month - April 2009: Abandoned Boats

Wayne Canning AMS
projectboatzen.com

[Cheechako]

Looks like they're gonna need a bigger unit for boats though! Maybe the State of Florida can get one setup on a barge for cruisiers who leave their boat at anchor while they go spend money in town and break the local rules....!

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by sailvayu

Breaks my heart

It doesn't break my heart. A boat, unloved, is just trash, rubbish etc. One loved has heart.

Boats are of use to man while they are seaworthy and consequently have value but all boats in all eras of humanity have deteriated and been, eventually, lost. They are built for a life and after that expendable like last years toaster.


Its good to see that old unloved, unseaworthy junkers are being put to better use than cluttering up our near-pristine waterways.




Mark

[Ram]

well said Mark!

[BubbleHeadMd]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

They are built for a life and after that expendable like last years toaster.<snip>


Mark

Mmm...I must differ a little on that. I'll tell you a story about a boat. USS Pargo, (SSN 650). Pargo pioneered the first SCICEX (Science Ice Exercise) as documented in National Geographic, circumnavigated North America via the Arctic, twice, test fired the first Mk 48 torpedos which are still in use on submarines today, held the record for the greatest number of polar surfacings, etc, etc, etc. The passageways were loaded with plaques and awards from 35 years of firsts.

I hated that boat with a passion reserved for people not inanimate objects. It consumed so many days...years of my life. Kept me from my family, holidays, a normal life. We hauled her out of the water at Puget Sound naval shipyard and I just knew that the day they pulled the reactor core out of her, that I'd be dancing on her grave.

Well I didn't dance. They pulled the core. Once the operation was complete and the hull was secure again, I went back aboard. I stood in the control room where the buckets that held all of the instruments stared back at me like empty eye sockets. I stood in the empty radio room where I'd spent 5 years listening to teletypewrites clatter away, all the knobs I'd twirled and signals I'd tuned, all the ships and planes I'd spoken to. I stood in the reactor compartment tunnel, staring at the sky through a hole that shouldn't exist. No fuel rods beneath me in the empty core.

Lastly, I stood in the empty Manuvering Room in Engineering (upper level). That room had been inhabited by human beings, non-stop for nearly 35 solid years, from the day the first core was loaded with never a gap. Not for a minute, ever, because the core must be monitored, even when shut down. Do you know how many lives that must have been? So then, I finally understood and I didn't dance. I was pretty sad though.

The Navy said she was last year's toaster. I disagree.

[John A]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

It doesn't break my heart. A boat, unloved, is just trash, rubbish etc. One loved has heart.

Boats are of use to man while they are seaworthy and consequently have value but all boats in all eras of humanity have deteriated and been, eventually, lost. They are built for a life and after that expendable like last years toaster.


Its good to see that old unloved, unseaworthy junkers are being put to better use than cluttering up our near-pristine waterways.

Mark

The following I discovered at Lake Worth, Fla. this last May=June.

The owner of the abandoned boat will be charged for the transportation, shredding and deposit of the remains in a stanitary landfill.

Boats accepted by a charity for a tax deductable amount are subject to gov. regulation. These boats must be put on the open market and an attempt made to recoup the amount of the deduction for three years, before they may be shredded. That means that a broker, surveyor, boat yatd and lawyer must all agree to provide a free service. Very few boats are acepted by a charity.

[Mike156]

Thank you for your service Bubbleheadmd.

“Blind Mans Bluff” what a story, so many brave men.

What happens when sound fiberglass boats are 50 years old?

My DeFever, built in Costa Mesa Ca, is 35 years old. Everything inside and out is new, but she’s still 35. She takes me from the Bahamas to Maine, in comfort and style, and back again. That’s what I care about.

I’m guessing she’ll have little value, but I don’t care. When I’m gone, shred it.

Mike
Merritt Island, FL.

[maxingout]

It's impressive to see the flimsy nature of the fiberglass when it gets in the mouth of the shredder. It makes me believe in bulkheads being tabbed correctly in place to support the flimsy glass. When you break a bulkhead loose, you are in trouble.

I met a south african sailor who had his boat interior detached from the hull on one side of the boat after taking a knockdown. The sailor said there was massive flexing of the hull in a seaway once the bulkheads and interior furniture came loose from the hull. I have seen the same thing happen in a catamaran who took a big hit from a wave. The hit detached the galley bulkheads from the hull resulting is a large amount of hull flexing at sea.

[David M]

Sure its easy to become emotionally attached to a boat or anything which has become a part of your life.

I would though much rather see an old boats that nobody wants become landfill than to see more plastic/fiberglass boats dumped in the oceans. I think the shredder is the most environmentally sound way of disposing of them.