Curious, how are old boats disposed of that marinas refuse to haul out?

[Scott Danforth]

What happens if the boat sinks like in the Chesapeake bay in 20 feet of water? Or deeper? Is there some point where it is just left where it sank.
Then marked on charts as a wreck?

I see wrecks marked on the NOAA charts. Is there a size where it is considered a shipwreck? Can't imagine a sunk 15 footer considered a shipwreck.

Some states charge you up to $2500/day until you recover it, regardless of depth

 

[sdowney717]

The 'boat graveyard': Why are there more than a dozen old, sunken boats sitting in Tampa Bay?

It's a felony to abandon a boat. It costs seven to eight thousand dollars to remove the vessels.

www.wtsp.com

from 2019 $8000 to remove a boat

 

[Pmt133]

My marina had a few steel and aluminum boats that were donated to the artificial reef. They floated them out and sank them once anything dangerous was stripped. (may have been the coast guard or the DEP) The rest, including a few 50s were stripped and disposed of in a roll off. Almost got a nice trailer and a few core engines out of that....

 

[Scott Danforth]

a good buddy of mine is a diver that helps anchor boats and items to the sea bed for starting artificial reefs. yes, the boats are stripped completely of any contaminates, fuels, lubricants, etc. the sites are chosen, approved by the appropriate folk, the area is mapped, marked, etc long before the hull is towed out.

He also helps with the whole seakeeper society on dives to remove wrecks cars, stolen objects, etc. from the water ways. that is funded solely by donations and volunteers.

 

[Pmt133]

Yes, it was a year long process to get to sinking. But once they towed it out it was detonate a couple charges and drive away. Pretty cool to watch, thing sank like a stone.

 

[tphoyt]

I recall seeing this being done to an old battleship on the history or discovery channel.
Every square inch of the ship had be cleaned after stripping it down. It was a big process.
Then they sank it with carefully placed dynamite charges.

 

[sdowney717]

It is interesting how sea water eventually dissolves everything. Titanic's steel is being eaten by microbial life, those rusticles. A few more years and it will be gone. Only thing that last the longest seems to be stone, all the megaliths left by the ancient civilizations endure but even eventually they will also be gone but it takes 10's of thousands of years. If our society ceases, our mark on the planet will also vanish in some places very fast. Our concrete is not durable like Roman concrete is.

The Titanic is vanishing. An expedition will monitor the ship's decay "before it all disappears"

Since the ship's 1985 discovery, the forward mast has collapsed, the crow's nest has vanished and the poop deck has folded under itself.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[four winns 214]

Close to where I have my boat, talked to a marina owner who had a 50 years old boat mid 30 footer sinking in one of his slips. He hauled it out on a railway, old place, then decided it was too rotten to save so he destroyed the boat then charged the owner $8000. Of course boat owner was very unhappy with what happened. Marina owner took owner to court and was saving pieces of the boat to show the court how bad it was.

Interesting story, but where I live, it’s a process to seize property you don’t own and destroy it. No question it can be done. It just takes time and money.

As far as saving pieces of the destroyed boat to “show the court”, I can assure you that a judge isn’t going to allow boat parts to be dragged into his/her courtroom. The judge is going to want facts such as copies of lease agreements, letters of correction to the owner and evidence of non-compliance with those measures. Then the judge is going to want to see the lien filed to assume ownership of the vessel. The marina owner did all that before removing the boat and destroying it, right?

I guess the marina owner is pursuing this in small claims court. Otherwise, it will cost him $5,000+ to hire a lawyer to try and recover from the owner.

 

[cyclops222]

Go to any farmland that is not being used. Near boating areas. LOADS of boats tossed on the ground. Upstate N Y area.

 

[sdowney717]

Interesting story, but where I live, it’s a process to seize property you don’t own and destroy it. No question it can be done. It just takes time and money.

As far as saving pieces of the destroyed boat to “show the court”, I can assure you that a judge isn’t going to allow boat parts to be dragged into his/her courtroom. The judge is going to want facts such as copies of lease agreements, letters of correction to the owner and evidence of non-compliance with those measures. Then the judge is going to want to see the lien filed to assume ownership of the vessel. The marina owner did all that before removing the boat and destroying it, right?

I guess the marina owner is pursuing this in small claims court. Otherwise, it will cost him $5,000+ to hire a lawyer to try and recover from the owner.

He had a short section of rotten rib framing he was going to show in court.
The impression I got from him, was the boat was sinking in the slip at his marina, so he hauled it out and I don't think the owner was involved in any decisions about it's fate. Typical of old Egg's which used bent frames, their chine area would split open and leak in water being carvel planked. A judge could fault the owner for not maintaining the hull with good repairs and then not dealing with a sinking boat, I suppose. Once a boat is on a railway it only gets off 2 ways, back into the water or destroyed. Unless can be transferred to a wagon with a crane, and he had nothing like that. Travel lifts are the marinas you want to be hauled out at. I was sort of interested in bits and pieces of hardware, he was going to sell to me.