News article about derelict boats after Ian

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Sad. My bro has a condo in a high rise bldg right near the river in Ft. Myers that looks down over a marina. I think some of those pics were taken right where he lives. It's a total shame.
 
I'm kind of surprised that according to the article, two thirds of the 700 boats have been removed. That's pretty good in my mind. That's 466 boats, more that 100 boats per month. Still an awful situation of course, but that seems like significant progress to me.
 
I wonder if these owners are leaving the boating world, or will add more pressure to an already tight boat market?
 
Anyone know the pragmatic details? Who pays o the removal? What ultimately happens to the vessels so severely injured as to be unable to be relaunched? What happens to the boats considered “totaled”? Who owns them? Or if whoever salvaged them is then responsible for the proper disposal of them?

GRP hulls don’t regrade. Both sail and power boats contain multiple toxic materials beyond fuel and batteries. Could see leaving them in the water having environmental impacts. But could also see putting them in landfills or the like producing issues. What’s the long term plan?

Due to recurrent hurricanes in the Caribbean in recent years the periphery of some harbors remain littered with sunken boats. There are also abandoned boats from broken dreams. Particularly in the windwards the countries don’t have our resources. This compounded by most boats being foreign flagged, owners not having deep pockets and difficult salvage means these boats just sit. Florida is different as state and federal resources exist but suspect among the third remaining untouched a similar dynamic exists.

As an aside both us and close friends investigated moving our boats down to Florida. Due to the loss of dock space it was impossible. The remaining space is booked out so far we’re even reluctant to visit and wander using transient dockage. Think this means much less out of state boaters even in areas unelected. Believe this has effected dockage as far north as Georgia and South Carolina as some are just looking for places to wet store and not need to winterize.
 
There is a great Youtube channel (Caribbean Castaways) out that has really covered the Fort Myers Beach Hurricane Ian damage from the start. They recently did a video of still abandoned boats.

 
Hippocampus said:
Anyone know the pragmatic details? Who pays o the removal? What ultimately happens to the vessels so severely injured as to be unable to be relaunched? What happens to the boats considered “totaled”? Who owns them? Or if whoever salvaged them is then responsible for the proper disposal of them?

GRP hulls don’t regrade. Both sail and power boats contain multiple toxic materials beyond fuel and batteries. Could see leaving them in the water having environmental impacts. But could also see putting them in landfills or the like producing issues. What’s the long term plan?

Due to recurrent hurricanes in the Caribbean in recent years the periphery of some harbors remain littered with sunken boats. There are also abandoned boats from broken dreams. Particularly in the windwards the countries don’t have our resources. This compounded by most boats being foreign flagged, owners not having deep pockets and difficult salvage means these boats just sit. Florida is different as state and federal resources exist but suspect among the third remaining untouched a similar dynamic exists.

As an aside both us and close friends investigated moving our boats down to Florida. Due to the loss of dock space it was impossible. The remaining space is booked out so far we’re even reluctant to visit and wander using transient dockage. Think this means much less out of state boaters even in areas unelected. Believe this has effected dockage as far north as Georgia and South Carolina as some are just looking for places to wet store and not need to winterize.
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In the past the insurance company would auction them off , I have seen they would group them in lots (25 to a lot for example) and you got the whole lot and had to move them , for the private owners I suspect the city or town would condemn them to get title , I saw one auction that was selling them and they got marked as running or not , of course they are as-is , so watch out for them to make thier way up north or west
 
So if the lots don’t sell or the local government gets them what is their ultimate resting place? Grind them up and get put it a land fill? Have all toxic materials removed and dumped in the sea or become an artificial reef?
 
Be careful buying from a auction. Unless it is a Federal Marshall's auction, you can and will be held liable for any unsatisfied liens that boat may have on it . . . .
 
Usually head to landfills, their cleanup depends on the landfill requirements as most landfills wind up with toxic stuff in them anyhow.

Rarely are glass boats used as artificial reefs as they tend to move too easily. That was told to me by several reef coordinators in NJ.
 
The volume of ground fiberglass from even a high volume of destroyed boats won't come close to the volume of discarded fiberglass from power generation windmill blades. 6,000 lb per blade average (although that varies widely by scale) x 3 blades per windmill x 70,800 turbines in the US as of January 2022... The numbers are staggering and make the fiberglass volume from discarded boats almost insignificant in comparison. Just to put the boat clean-up in perspective.
 
kthoennes said:
The volume of ground fiberglass from even a high volume of destroyed boats won't come close to the volume of discarded fiberglass from power generation windmill blades.
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How many windmill blades were damaged in Ian?
 
I wonder if we (the US) will ever try what Europe was trying awhile back of trying to start companies interested in refurbishing older glass hulls into new/restored vessels.

Not a total solution... hopefully it could be a good start especially if you could order a custom job, hold the frills and wind up with what you want at a decent price.

I might be in if something like that was in the cards.
 
psneeld said:
I wonder if we (the US) will ever try what Europe was trying awhile back of trying to start companies interested in refurbishing older glass hulls into new/restored vessels.

Not a total solution... hopefully it could be a good start especially if you could order a custom job, hold the frills and wind up with what you want at a decent price.

I might be in if something like that was in the cards.
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Interesting thought. I wonder what the economics look like for mostly or completely gutting an existing hull and rebuilding the interior, new electrical and mechanical components, etc. vs building a new boat.
 
There are very few if any large scale windmills in Florida. Wind is too variable in FL as I understand it so it's not a good candidate for steady generation. I don't mean to detour the thread, but I just happen to live in a wind generation state with a blade production facility a few miles away. Every time the forum talks about cleaning up derelict or totaled boats and the disposal impacts -- at least as to the fiberglass and some other potentially hazardous components -- the relatively small recreational boat volume is insignificant in comparison. No free lunch.
 
psneeld said:
I wonder if we (the US) will ever try what Europe was trying awhile back of trying to start companies interested in refurbishing older glass hulls into new/restored vessels.

Not a total solution... hopefully it could be a good start especially if you could order a custom job, hold the frills and wind up with what you want at a decent price.

I might be in if something like that was in the cards.
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Europe is using the heavy hand of government to achieve broadly popular goals. It'll never fly in the US.

I looked pretty closely at recycling old boats on a large scale. The biggest impediment to getting a viable program is that the landfills accept the carcasses at minimal cost.
 
Jeff F said:
How many windmill blades were damaged in Ian?
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How many windmills are there in SW Florida? Driving through/around don't recall seeing one.
 
That sounds like mvweebles's guy.
 
Taboo is a wooden boat. It is pretty big and looks to be in average condition. If it was insured the storm was probably the best thing to happen for the owner. Sad but true.

I kind of doubt if his insurance is good though, otherwise why worry about $16,000?

pete
 
Pete Meisinger said:
Taboo is a wooden boat. It is pretty big and looks to be in average condition. If it was insured the storm was probably the best thing to happen for the owner. Sad but true.

I kind of doubt if his insurance is good though, otherwise why worry about $16,000?

pete
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Because it wasn't insured?
 
I thought I read an article somewhere, and now that I'm having my first 'senior' moment for the day, it just isn't there.
Anyways, I thought I read an article that 'they', or someone was grinding or chipping up old fiberglass hulls and it was being used in cement construction. I could be totally wrong, but that is what I remember.
Found an article:
https://bassanglermag.com/turing-fiberglass-boats-into-cement/
 
Jeff F said:
Europe is using the heavy hand of government to achieve broadly popular goals. It'll never fly in the US.

I looked pretty closely at recycling old boats on a large scale. The biggest impediment to getting a viable program is that the landfills accept the carcasses at minimal cost.
Click to expand...

The article I read did discuss pretty intricate subsidizing....for returning to boat service.

On a different note, I think in Denmark, they were turning old hulls into homes for the poor/homeless.

They were situated on a quaint hillside, looked like they cut doors into the sides of the hulls for easy entry. neighborhood looked pretty cool to an old liveaboard like me on several levels.
 
Hippocampus said:
So ....................Have all toxic materials removed and dumped in the sea or become an artificial reef?
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Exactly. Wonder what the cost analysis is comparing out to sea to to the landfill. Towing to sea and sinking at face value is a great idea. The thousands of mini reefs would be fabulous fish habitat. Or think about a reef with a thousand in a pile? Pure genius Hippo. What am I missing?
 
Cargile said:
Exactly. Wonder what the cost analysis is comparing out to sea to to the landfill. Towing to sea and sinking at face value is a great idea. The thousands of mini reefs would be fabulous fish habitat. Or think about a reef with a thousand in a pile? Pure genius Hippo. What am I missing?
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I think most bigger boats leave by barge. There's no other practical way to move them intact.
 
Jeff F said:
......... There's no other practical way to move them intact.
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So load a hundred on a barge and out to sea or a parade of a hundred in tow.
 
Cargile said:
Interesting news story. This caught my attention. The gentleman who owns the 65' yacht Taboo, lives in a canal home in SW Florida and cannot afford 16.5K to float the boat on his own? Curious. The last two years must have hit him pretty hard financially.
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I think you misread that. Two different paragraphs. One is salvage and repair, the other just the cost to have a crane haul it off this guys lawn.

"...the price to pull out and fix the damaged boat is too much, so an insurance company will come and tow Taboo."

".. to lift that off there with a huge barge and a crane was gonna be $16,200, [just to] lift it up, and put in the water,"

This reads to me that the insurance company isn't interested in hauling and fixing as the total cost to haul and repair will exceed the value of the vessel. Since the insurance company is totaling the vessel, they pay to have it hauled off and dumped instead.

Just the cost to lift the vessel with a crane is 16.5K.
 
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