Scrapping a narrowboat

[tarboat]

Are there any businesses out there who would collect and scrap a steel narrowboat. What do people usually do when a boat comes to the end of its economic life?

[Tony Brooks]

2 minutes ago, tarboat said:

Are there any businesses out there who would collect and scrap a steel narrowboat. What do people usually do when a boat comes to the end of its economic life?

 

Paint the interiors white and sell it at a "bargain" price? A certain broker seem to be available to help you.

 

Just abandon it and leave the problem to CaRT?

 

Actually that seems a good question, I too would like to know the answer.

[NB Esk]

 
We would collect and scrap if it was within a day’s travel, by water, of Wakefield.

 

The last one we collected ( from an OAP ) who had given up boating, looked far too good to scrap, so we had it surveyed.  It passed with flying colours, so we blacked it and welded on new anodes.  The first person to view bought it and we were able to take 3k back to the old fella. 
He was delighted as he’d expected to be covering our costs.

 

When they are scrapped, the bows are cut off to make a skip sized container, the rest goes into this ( in large chunks ) and the interior goes into a skip.

 

 

[Tracy D'arth]

Is it still afloat? If so it has value as a boat. Sell it as is.

[Tracy D'arth]

Where is it?

[MtB]

3 hours ago, tarboat said:

Are there any businesses out there who would collect and scrap a steel narrowboat. What do people usually do when a boat comes to the end of its economic life?

 

Rather like accident-damaged cars, 'end of economic life' is more a matter of opinion than fact, in my opinion, and depends a lot on whose opinion it is! 

 

The scrapping of a narrowboat seems very rare down here. No matter how bad one is, there always seems to be someone who sees it as worth the effort of patching it up and squeezing a few more years of life out of it or selling it on for a few £k as a doer-upper. In fact NB Esk's post is the first time I've ever directly encountered someone saying they've actually scrapped one themselves.

 

 

 

[Athy]

I've seen it done once, at Fox's yard in March. The elderly narrowboat had rusted through on the waterline, so the top half was in imminent danger of separating from the bottom half. I suppose they could have welded it all round the waterline, but it wasn't considered economically viable to do so.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Athy said:

I've seen it done once, at Fox's yard in March. The elderly narrowboat had rusted through on the waterline, so the top half was in imminent danger of separating from the bottom half. I suppose they could have welded it all round the waterline, but it wasn't considered economically viable to do so.

 

Considered. See?

 

That is what I mean, a matter of opinion not fact. 

 

A competent welder might have considered it worth spending a weekend welding plating on all around the waterline of this scrap boat in order to acquire a boat subsquently sellable for perhaps £10k. But A N Other might not consider they have the skill or the time for it to be worth the effort.

 

Same happens with cars. Mild accident damage is not worth the Ins Co fixing so they 'write it off'. A self-employed car fixer buys it and fixes it anyway (perhaps with second hand parts) and sells it as a fixed and repaired car. 

[Bee]

A good boat, nice shape, proper 'authentic' details, not fire damaged and warped badly or otherwise beyond repair could probably go on forever, there's always someone who would look at it and think it would make a good tug or something but some old shapeless tub with no extras - engine, internal fittings etc is going to end up as several tons of rusty scrap sooner or later, there were a lot of awful boats built that aren't worth the welding rods and the aggro.

[Athy]

8 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Considered. See?

 

That is what I mean, a matter of opinion not fact. 

 

A competent welder might have considered it worth spending a weekend welding plating on all around the waterline of this scrap boat

Of course.

As the blokes at Fox's build narrowboats from the ground up, I would guess that they are competent welders. So if they didn't consider it worth the effort, I doubt anyone else would have done. 

[john.k]

Scrap steel has a value too.........last year scrap here was equiv 200+ quid a ton......the professionals get a lot more than that too........I scrapped just about everything out of my yard,over 50 tons ........and unlike dickering with tossers over a sale price of something,scrap gets an agreed cash price over the weighbridge ,within  maybe an hour of pickup........if you are a regular ,the yards will tolerate a fair bit of rubbish too,like for instrance a truck will have four tyres to be disposed of.......often the yard will deduct $10 per trruck tyre..............when if I take a truck tyre to the council tip,they will want $100 disposal charge.

[Slow and Steady]

4 minutes ago, Athy said:

Of course.

As the blokes at Fox's build narrowboats from the ground up, I would guess that they are competent welders. So if they didn't consider it worth the effort, I doubt anyone else would have done. 

The waterline part was probably just the worst bit. Quite likely the rest wasn't far behind. 

[MtB]

7 minutes ago, Athy said:

Of course.

As the blokes at Fox's build narrowboats from the ground up, I would guess that they are competent welders. So if they didn't consider it worth the effort, I doubt anyone else would have done. 

 

Why wouldn't they? The sums work differently for everyone.

 

Fox's would probably want their chargeable rate of say £70 an hour for their competent welder to do it (whilst paying him £40 an hour), so for them it made no sense. But if the welder himself fancied a bit of extra work on his own account at the weekend, he could do the whole job for no more than the cost of the steel, the welding wire and the electricity, and get himself an almost 'free' boat.  But as john.k points out, the lost scrap value also needs working into the sums. 

 

 

 

 

[Athy]

4 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Why wouldn't they? The sums work differently for everyone.

 

Fox's would probably want their chargeable rate of say £70 an hour for their competent welder to do it (whilst paying him £40 an hour), so for them it made no sense. But if the welder himself fancied a bit of extra work on his own account at the weekend, he could do the whole job for no more than the cost of the steel, the welding wire and the electricity, and get himself an almost 'free' boat.  But as john.k points out, the lost scrap value also needs working into the sums. 

 

 

 

 

A good story! but not applicable in this case.

[MtB]

Just now, Athy said:

A good story! but not applicable in this case.

 

Yes, an imagined scenario to illustrate the point. 

[john.k]

You cant weld rust

[MtB]

14 minutes ago, john.k said:

You cant weld rust

 

The weigh-in price for rust isn't £200 a tonne either, I bet...

[cuthound]

From about 1990 until about 2000 there was a Springer type narrowboat in a breakers yard adjacent to the railway line between Raynes Park and Wimbledon stations.

 

I used to pass it commuting into Waterloo twice a day.

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Rather like accident-damaged cars, 'end of economic life' is more a matter of opinion than fact, in my opinion, and depends a lot on whose opinion it is! 

 

 

 

Thats what happened to my car

[john.k]

Ive never had any comment with really rusty steel......just so the magnet in the yard picks it up and piles it,OK..

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Thats what happened to my car

 

Someone objected to you parking in two bays and "nudged" it out?  🤣😅

Edited April 8, 2022 by cuthound
To remove a full stop masquerading as a space.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

I’ve seen a yard cutting a boat up for scrap. 
The boat had been abandoned and burnt out. 
CRT wanted it off their waters. 
The yard made some money for nothing. (well a couple of hours with an angle grinder)

 

In some cases it makes sense to make a few quid on a quick turn over, especially if you got the boat (steel) for nowt. 

[Tracy D'arth]

9 hours ago, tarboat said:

Are there any businesses out there who would collect and scrap a steel narrowboat. What do people usually do when a boat comes to the end of its economic life?

Where is the boat?  PM me for an on the spot price please.

[Tim Lewis]

21 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Why wouldn't they? The sums work differently for everyone.

 

Fox's would probably want their chargeable rate of say £70 an hour for their competent welder to do it (whilst paying him £40 an hour), so for them it made no sense. But if the welder himself fancied a bit of extra work on his own account at the weekend, he could do the whole job for no more than the cost of the steel, the welding wire and the electricity, and get himself an almost 'free' boat.  But as john.k points out, the lost scrap value also needs working into the sums. 

 

 

 

 

I can’t imagine that there are many welders in the fens on £100k a year, £15 an hour is more likely

[ditchcrawler]

A friend of mine gave their Springer away when it started sinking, a few years later I spotted it on the bank on the T&M near Middlewich. it sat there for a couple of years all shiny and blacked before going into the water, then a couple pf years later it sailed away.