Destroying a boat

 

A friend has(had) a 31 ft Corvette sailboat that needed to be scraped. It took a bit of work but after 12 hr’s of hard labor I separated  the lead keel from the hull and removed all of the good fittings and hardware from the boat.

I used a bottle jack to lift the hull so that I could pry the lead away from the bottom of the boat.

I had to cut several of the bolts that held the lead to the bottom before it would let go.I've got strong straps on the lead since it weighs about 4000 lbs!

Some thru hulls I simply cut out of the hull rather than take the time to carefully remove them. Afterwards, I strapped the boat to the trailer and headed to the dump.

notice how thick the hull is? This was a well made boat.

My friend Ralph is beat after helping me in the high heat and high humidity. The boat is ready to head for the dump.

 For a price they lifted the boat off from the trailer and off it went into the big landfill.

I used plenty of straps and they effortlessly lifted it off from the trailer

and onto the ground.

All I had left of the corvette was the lead keel, and the mast. 

The lead strapped and ready to go to the recyclers

One last stop to pick up the mast and boom.

I took the lead to the metal scrap yard and the mast home with me. In the old days, many old of the wooden boats boats simply sank to the bottom and were “recycled” by marine life today though, it’s to the dump for those tough old fiberglass hulls. The only question I have now is “anyone need a 34 ft aluminum mast?”