Where boats die

I just read an interesting article regarding the death of fiberglass boats and where they are ending up, mostly in the water. Reading about the breakdown of fiberglass and the micro pieces following similar paths of plastic around the world was disheartening. While extensive research is still required the preliminary work doesn’t paint a good picture for the environment. Makes me wonder if at some point in the future recreational boat building doesn’t change course with materials and favor the environment which we all enjoy and need to protect. Will we see return to wood or ??

Any thoughts?

We’re heading toward metal now mostly aluminum of course.

But re wood other wood products will be developed and perhaps they will be more suitable for building and running wood boats.
With robotic assembly we could be close to building plywood boats much like the 50’s and 60’s. Would be a big high volume gig. Little small shop building.
Just some thoughts .....

Interesting. My guess would have been a majority of boats end up being disposed of on land.

It seems to me sinking is better for the environment, long-term. A fiberglass boat, in one piece on the bottom, will eventually silt over and be gone from the environment for millions of years. Breaking it up for disposal on land would seem more likely to disperse small fragments of plastic into the environment.

I agree Tom but our generation hasn’t thought much about the future. But we’ve sure shown how pollution is a very bad thing. And now that there’s way too many people it’s becoming very evident we’ve dropped the ball and didn’t even know we had it.

My bad....

I thought this thread was going to be about one marina in my area where they seem to have a couple of docks dedicated to boats that have been totally uncared for and disintegrated by the sun and/or sunk in their slip.

We call it the place where old boats go to die.

In general. I'm always amazed by the number of boats that seem to have been abandoned at the marinas. Why do they keep paying for the slip and whatever maintenance they continue to have done if they never step foot on the boat?

Nomad Willy said:

I agree Tom but our generation hasn’t thought much about the future. But we’ve sure shown how pollution is a very bad thing. And now that there’s way too many people it’s becoming very evident we’ve dropped the ball and didn’t even know we had it.

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Damn perceptive of you, Eric!

Some info on recycling fiberglass boats. A puzzle that needs to be solved with the vast numbers of aging boats in the world.



Avoiding the Watery Grave: How to Recycle Fiberglass Boats


Recycling of Fiberglass Boats

To help solve the recycling problem, I wonder when a company will come out with a line of "new" boats based on rebuilds of existing hulls?

TexasBryan said:

...Why do they keep paying for the slip and whatever maintenance they continue to have done if they never step foot on the boat?

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Here's a couple possibilities:

Dreams of boating fade or die well after failing health prevents owners from using their boats, and husbands/wives can't deal with selling their recently departed loved ones pride & joy.

rslifkin said:

To help solve the recycling problem, I wonder when a company will come out with a line of "new" boats based on rebuilds of existing hulls?

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There are some cottage industry types doing this already, mostly with small to mid size center console fishing boats. You can get good money for an old Aquasport 20 or 222 these days. Same for the older Makos.

I spent some time scoping out boat recycling opportunities in the Midwest. What I found was landfills that take just about any boat. Have to remove fuel tanks, but apart from that few restrictions. They charge by the ton, and it's cheap. Not sure it's the right solution, but that's where most end up eventually.

I've heard that they crush them between loaders before burying them. Bigger boats get chainsawed at the yard first.

TexasBryan said:

In general. I'm always amazed by the number of boats that seem to have been abandoned at the marinas. Why do they keep paying for the slip and whatever maintenance they continue to have done if they never step foot on the boat?

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Often those are abandoned boats whose owners have stopped paying moorage fees, let alone registration and maintenance. They are left to become the marina's headache.

Jeff F said:

I spent some time scoping out boat recycling opportunities in the Midwest. What I found was landfills that take just about any boat. Have to remove fuel tanks, but apart from that few restrictions. They charge by the ton, and it's cheap. Not sure it's the right solution, but that's where most end up eventually.

I've heard that they crush them between loaders before burying them. Bigger boats get chainsawed at the yard first.

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Watched the yard in Marathon chomp up a 35-ish foot sailboat and put in in a truck this spring. Shame - it looked to be in decent shape.

Here, they end up in the landfill, often after being salvaged at great expense.
I've suggested that they have a voluntary drop off option at a reserved area of the landfill, where people can go rob parts from the carcasses until they are picked clean enough to deposit in the landfill.

One thing I've noticed about micro-plastics problems... Most styrofoam cups now break down in a landfill in to 'harmless bits' but stay there for over 300 years, according to most industry experts. So, adding starch to the chemistry of a styrofoam cup so it will break down into small beads only makes the problem slightly less visible. Anything not in a landfill will deteriorate down to tiny bits of plastic to be eaten by fish and other wildlife.

When we were looking for our trawler back in 2006, we visited a storage area in Fort Pierce. It looked the place that old boats go to die. There was even a vessel there called "Grim Reaper" that looked as though somebody should put it out of its misery. My apologies to anyone who bought it!!

TexasBryan said:

We call it the place where old boats go to die.

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MurrayM said:

Here's a couple possibilities:

Dreams of boating fade or die well after failing health prevents owners from using their boats, and husbands/wives can't deal with selling their recently departed loved ones pride & joy.

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Murray's got it. I looked at lots of used boats before buying my last one. It was sad to see how many owners hung onto the dream long after they could no longer do the maintenance to keep their pride and joy in shape. Of course, they wanted what it was worth back in its day. Not what it's worth today, as a near-wreck taking up space in the boat yard.

Around here, those generally migrated to the far back corner of the boatyard, where they slowly deteriorated. Our yard can't afford the space, and we've had to threaten owners and, in one case, take possession and auction it off. As mom-and-pop marinas get sold to big corporations, the "back lot" full of decaying boats is becoming a thing of the past. I used to love wandering around those sections.

Portage_Bay said:

Some info on recycling fiberglass boats. A puzzle that needs to be solved with the vast numbers of aging boats in the world.

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Well they stopped recycling glass bottles - no one wants them anymore. Cheaper to make the bottles in plastic - which creates a huge problem, since China isn't taking anymore of US trash for recycling. So, what are the chances anyone is going to recycle fiberglas?

If I can't have a steel hull, I want wood.

My understanding is that it is actually cheaper to make new glass from sand rather than from recycled glass, when you figure in all the ancillary costs associated with recycling.

Chrisjs said:

My understanding is that it is actually cheaper to make new glass from sand rather than from recycled glass, when you figure in all the ancillary costs associated with recycling.

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Actually glass making requires a certain % of remelted glass called collet. Usually companies have enough scrap / reject product use but in some instances they actually run glass to be used as bullet for melting larger quantities. Much more difficult to start with 100% raw materials.

Cullet

RT Firefly said:

Cullet

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I guess spell check doesnt like cullet!?

https://www.proboat.com/2016/09/rec...ng methods are used,little or no unused waste.

Interesting article. Here's a basic rule. Anything can be recycled. The key is making it economically viable, profitable for the recyler. Batteries and Tires are great example. You pay a fee to discard and 100% gets recycled including the lead and the plastic from batteries. Many of you often decry the use of plastic water bottles. Yet, they're one of the most easily recycled items. We do go to the trouble of getting 100% of them from both our personal and business use to a recycler.

Our marina has had 8-9 large boats sitting on blocks for years. They are now taking out any usable parts, removing engines (for scrap or parts) and breaking up the boats for landfill. It is my understanding that the owners just abandoned them and marina was not able to get them to remove.

I suspect the marina is doing this as they are looking to sell and need to get rid of the junk.

I was talking with my marina owner just last week about supposed neglected/abandoned boats in the back row at his marina. There are about 20 boats which have not been in the water in at least 8 years. About half of them will never see the water again. You know the ones. Boats with blue tarps on them which is shredded to bits, decks are green, many are flooded, wood is rotten, smell is bad, etc.

He told me that all of them, except one, are current on their storage rental. He cuts them a pretty good deal because they are all in the back row, never need to be moved, no utilities involved, nothing left of value on them. But the owners still go on writing the checks.

I suspect some of them are older and to sell or give up on their "precious" boat means they will never finish their dreams.

pete

I live in the heart of Great Plains wind generation and if you want to talk about fiberglass disposal, you should Google windmill blade disposal. 260 feet long, 36 tons each, and there are thousands of used, worn out blades stacking up. Our regional landfill had an open acceptance policy payable by the ton until the blade trucks started showing up filling the landfill cells. They quickly changed the rules. The windmill blade problem makes the fiberglass boat problem look like a tiny speck. Don't get me started on "green energy" boondoggles. Appalling environmental damage for centuries to come, but hey, it's green. Dead boats are nuthin'.

kthoennes said:

I live in the heart of Great Plains wind generation and if you want to talk about fiberglass disposal, you should Google windmill blade disposal. 260 feet long, 36 tons each, and there are thousands of used, worn out blades stacking up. Our regional landfill had an open acceptance policy payable by the ton until the blade trucks started showing up filling the landfill cells. They quickly changed the rules. The windmill blade problem makes the fiberglass boat problem look like a tiny speck. Don't get me started on "green energy" boondoggles. Appalling environmental damage for centuries to come, but hey, it's green. Dead boats are nuthin'.

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You should probably do a reality check on the tonnage of old boats versus the tonnage of old blades.
Don't get me started on the fact that wind power and PV is the fastest growing segment
of electric -and profit- generation. Worldwide.
Let's get started on the boondoggle that is nuclear 'energy'. That is a real legacy.

I read an article about a year ago that mentioned the staggering number of fiberglass boats nearing “retirement.” It mentioned that at some point government might step in and require a fee for each new boat produced to cover the costs of disposal. In the meantime, marinas and waterfront cities, towns and counties may be facing a large unforeseen expense as more boats are abandoned.

I’m hoping our aluminum boat is recyclable in a financially viable way.

Many old land fills are being mined.


Since GRP burns very well , eventually it will be dug up and probably burned.

BandB said:

https://www.proboat.com/2016/09/rec...ng methods are used,little or no unused waste.

Interesting article. Here's a basic rule. Anything can be recycled. The key is making it economically viable, profitable for the recyler. Batteries and Tires are great example. You pay a fee to discard and 100% gets recycled including the lead and the plastic from batteries. Many of you often decry the use of plastic water bottles. Yet, they're one of the most easily recycled items. We do go to the trouble of getting 100% of them from both our personal and business use to a recycler.

Click to expand...

The problem is, there is no incentive to recycle plastic bottles. When I lived in the states, the blue recycling bins - for which we pulled the labels off the steel and aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles - they were just put all together into a truck - which then took the stuff right to the dump. It never got recycled - just crushed by D9 Cats. And you as the homeowner had to pay extra for that. The only thing they sent to recycling was paper and cardboard.

boathealer said:

Watched the yard in Marathon chomp up a 35-ish foot sailboat and put in in a truck this spring. Shame - it looked to be in decent shape.

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That is brutal.
Would have killed for something half as good as that as our first vessel.