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How to get rid of an old fibreglass boat


Mike Adams

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My 18ft fibreglass sailing dinghy is now 50 years old and over the winter the floor has rotted. I need to get rid of it. It is on a roadworthy trailer. Has anyone any experience how to  get rid of a boat like this?  I don't want all the effort of cutting it up and taking it bit by bit to the council tip. There is about 250Kg of material. Would a waste recycler take it?

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This is becoming a major problem and nothinh much can be done with old GRP.

 

It may be worth offering the trailer 'free' if they take the boat as well.

 

 

There was an intersting article in PBO last year :

 

Plastic boats – how should we dispose of old boats when they reach the end of their lives? - Practical Boat Owner (pbo.co.uk)

 

 

“No-one wants to accept liability for end of life,” says Steve. “Boat insurance companies say they don’t break boats up; they give them back to the owners who have to deal with it. Marinas won’t pay to have abandoned boats removed; they just put them on ebay and sell them for £1 to get rid of them. Anyone can buy a boat for £1, strip it of all the good bits and then dump it somewhere. Who’s then liable? Not the marina, because they sold the boat for £1. The owner can’t be traced, because we don’t have an owner registration scheme. So it’s the local council that has to deal with it, and local taxpayers have to pay the bill. It’s so unethical.”

 

Because boat breaking is not cheap. EU research suggests it costs around €800 to dispose of a 23-footer, rising to €1,500 for a 33-39ft boat and up to €15,000 for boats over 50ft long. Boatbreakers themselves put the price at about £100 per foot – ie £3,000 for a 30ft yacht (though contact them directly for a detailed quote, as it may be less depending on location, etc).

 

If the boat is GRP, the story ends there. There is currently no process in the UK for recycling glassfibre, so the chopped up hulls go straight to landfill – which Boatbreakers have to pay for. Part of the problem is that a boat’s hull is a composite, made up of gelcoat, followed by glassfibre, followed by a foam or balsa core, followed by more glassfibre or other lining, with extra layers of glassfibre, wood and/or metal reinforcement in strategic locations around the hull. Separating the various elements is an expensive process and the end result is something which at the moment has little or no commercial value – unlike carbon fibre, where the raw materials are expensive enough to warrant recycling.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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13 minutes ago, Mike Adams said:

I would put it on ebay, but as it is traceable being a class dinghy, I wouldn't want it to end up on the side of a road somewhere.

 

Boatbreakers are not that far from you (about 50 miles) :

 

Boatbreakers.com
The Anchorage
Gosport
Hampshire
PO12 1LZ

 

Get a quote :

 

Scrap Your Boat With Boatbreakers | Free No Obligation Scrap Calculator

 

If she can be sailed in you could save a large part of the disposal cost and we can simply scoop her onto dry land using our crane. Just make sure you remember to organise a lift home! If you can sail the boat to us or get her delivered there is always a chance that we could take your boat for FREE. All you need to do is wait for a high tide, head to the big crane and our team will be on hand to scoop you out.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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2 hours ago, OldGoat said:

Turn it into a fancy flower bed....

......... on your local roundabout.  

4 hours ago, Mike Adams said:

My 18ft fibreglass sailing dinghy is now 50 years old and over the winter the floor has rotted. I need to get rid of it. It is on a roadworthy trailer. Has anyone any experience how to  get rid of a boat like this?  I don't want all the effort of cutting it up and taking it bit by bit to the council tip. There is about 250Kg of material. Would a waste recycler take it?

 

you could cut that up with a cheapo Chinese reciprocating saw in one afternoon (wear an all-over white suit and mask).  If the pieces are small enough it is unlikely the council would object to half a car-load being put in the non-recyclable bin - 3 trips should do it.

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I think I will cut it up into sections with a jigsaw and take it to the local tip as commercial waste. It goes on weight so I am guessing 250Kg will not be too expensive. Its a shame to scrap it but if I don't it will still be here in another 50 years time and probably more expensive to get rid of later on. The only advantage of owning a wooden boat is it will quite quickly rot away. Thanks for the advice.

  • Greenie 1
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1 hour ago, Mike Adams said:

I think I will cut it up into sections with a jigsaw and take it to the local tip as commercial waste. 

A long time since I last had to cut up anything fibreglass but grp eats jigsaws blades. A diamond cutting disc works far better -yep I know it sounds like it shouldnt but it was a fitter from Viking's who told me this.

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41 minutes ago, BEngo said:

Surprised no one has suggested a half-gallon of old engine oil or dirty diesel and a viking funeral.

N

The fumes from burning fibreglass are highly toxic. A good lungful will paralyse the breathing system and you will suffocate.

In house/boat/car/aircraft fires where there are fatalities,the victims have usually died from suffocation and not burning.

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1 hour ago, PaulJ said:

A long time since I last had to cut up anything fibreglass but grp eats jigsaws blades. A diamond cutting disc works far better -yep I know it sounds like it shouldnt but it was a fitter from Viking's who told me this.

Thanks

I will try that first but I want to keep the dust down if possible

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35 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

The fumes from burning fibreglass are highly toxic. A good lungful will paralyse the breathing system and you will suffocate.

In house/boat/car/aircraft fires where there are fatalities,the victims have usually died from suffocation and not burning.

I didn't realise Viking funerals were carried out while the person was still alive. 

 

Interesting approach I suppose. 

 

One usually does this after the person has stopped breathing for a certain amount of time. 

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10 hours ago, Mike Adams said:

Thanks

I will try that first but I want to keep the dust down if possible

 a reciprocating saw is much more versatile and faster than any jigsaw.    I cut a cast-iron bath in half with one.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Moss-230v-Reciprocating-Saw-900w-INC-2-Blades-Recip-Metal-Wood-Cutting/132569649965?hash=item1eddc4532d:g:ptQAAOSwRQdei4AI

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You can dispatch a GRP cruiser in about an hour using a 9" grinder with a steel cutting disk. The disk will  last the full job. Wear PPE . If you are a council tax payer the local waste authority will take the pieces for free, as long as you say the boat came off your drive/garden. Phone them first.Just a shame that it will probably go for landfill, though it may go to an energy from waste  plant , depending  on where you live.

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May not be as effective with Covid restrictions but contact your local (inland) scuba diving club. We've sunk quite a few boats in the Blue Lagoon (see most right hand image of https://www.mksac.co.uk/blue-lagoon-diving for an example - I think there are three or four GRP, two or three wooden boats, two car chassis and a single seat Cessna at the last count!)

 

Just makes an otherwise boring lake a bit more interesting when it's too rough to go to the seaside.

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1 hour ago, billh said:

You can dispatch a GRP cruiser in about an hour using a 9" grinder with a steel cutting disk. The disk will  last the full job. Wear PPE . If you are a council tax payer the local waste authority will take the pieces for free, as long as you say the boat came off your drive/garden. Phone them first.Just a shame that it will probably go for landfill, though it may go to an energy from waste  plant , depending  on where you live.

Lucky you, we have to pay a fee if they collect things other than the usual plastic bag at the gate.

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I've started to cut it up with a jigsaw lubricated with water and a little cutting oil. It cuts surprisingly fast and the water stops the dust and the blade getting too hot and burning. Another lockdown job I've being meaning to do for some time. As the council tip is only a couple of hundred yards away I should be able to gradually get rid of the bits over the next few months.

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