Re: Boats Too Costly to Keep Are Littering Coastlines
Its not that much better here money wise, but you often can watch the same overpriced boats on CL for months with no takers.
I find the best way to off a boat is still to list it with a price. Most people would rather haggle the price down and feel they got a deal than take it for free for some reason. I find that pricing things too low scares people into thinking it's junk.
I've cut up or scrapped a lot boats myself that had potential, but just weren't my cup of tea. Lately I've even picked up a few dozen good used trailers for near nothing or free. I got one yesterday which had a rotted out Century on it, the seller told me to take what I wanted, it was free. The trailer was a 2004 Load Rite, the boat was pure junk, it had sat outside for the past 25 or so years and was nearly filled with leaves. From what I gathered that owner had got it for free with big hopes of restoring it but money got tight and he gave up. I told him all I wanted was the trailer, his response was that the trailer goes with the boat unless you can find a way to remove the boat. I said no problem, walked over to the boat and tied a line to an adjacent tree and pulled away with the trailer. Leaving the boat where it fell. I'm sure that the fact that they now had a rotting hulk of a boat that now couldn't be moved on their lawn soon sank in. I had a super nice trailer, and a box of goodies out of the boat. Being near the shore, this area is loaded with boats, it's just that most are pretty rough due to saltwater damage and neglect. Finding anything worth saving is rare.
I had a 7 year old Starcraft aluminum hull, a 22' boat, which looked like a new boat, it ran great, looked good, and had a later model roller trailer.
It was a freebie. The last owner gave up on it due to major leaks he couldn't find. (The keel was rotted out and pulling away from the rivets). I pulled the motor for my boat, took the controls, gauge package, and trailer, as well as the enclosure and bimini top. I left nothing but the bare hull. My original intention was to strip it and scrap the hull for weight. But when I found it was full of wet foam and that it had 3 layers of plywood under the carpet. I figured it wasn't worth all the work.
I listed it for free on CL, back when aluminum was still bringing good money. No takers, not even a phone call after 5 weeks. So, My next move was to put it on an old bunk trailer, and listed it for "$3500, needs work, has leaks, needs, motor and interior". I got at least 50 calls in the first 4 hours. The second guy to show up bought it for $2900. (I'd have sold it for $29 if that was what it took to get it out of my yard). He had driven over 500 miles to get it, absolutely knew he was leaving with a boat when he arrived. He has since sent me pics of it all put back together, he hung a motor, put in two seats and said its the best boat he's ever owned. He did nothing else to the boat other than ad a half dozen large bilge pumps. He runs freshwater, and probably never beats the boat.
To me, that boat was in no way worth the work to own or fix. It would have meant tearing it down to a bare hull to fix something that I knew would be an ugly, time consuming, repair and I had no interest in it. To him, it was the deal of a lifetime.
The worst thing I see is the mid sized cabin boats being abandoned at the marinas for back storage. I talked to one marina last month that had 33 boats that he was 99% sure were going to be abandoned. All were nice, usable boat which stand little to no chance of finding a new home in this economy.
I used to own a 31' cabin boat, and a 42' cabin boat, both gas powered, both were super thirsty boats. I am really glad I don't own them now.
I'd have no choice but to dump them.
At $2.50 per gallon at the docks, and looking at a $500 day out on the water, most people just don't have it. MY 42' boat would burn 280-300 gallons a day back in 1988, when gas was only a $1 per gallon, now at today's gas prices, and today's dock fees, and winter storage fees, there's no way I'd be able to afford that boat. I can barely afford the $50 a day it cost me to go out with my aluminum boat with the way things have been.
Work is scarce, money is tight, and I don't see any end in site in the near future. There will be many more dumped and abandoned boats out there.
And with local ordinances forcing people to keep their boats elsewhere, (boat's are banned in some towns), there will be more and more people giving up on boating. If I had to pay $250 a month or more to store my boat, I'd sell it for scrap. The going rate for marina storage is about $15 to $40 per foot here. I've already had issues with the local township about boats being stored here. They even tried to pass an ordinance banning commercial tagged vehicles from residential areas. Meaning that my van, which I use for business, since I'm self employed, would have to be stored elsewhere as well. BS like that is what's driving people to dump their boats.
I think that if the average person could park their boat in the back yard and wait out the economy, or sell it, they'd keep it and not just set it adrift.
But if bringing the boat home means a fine for having it on your property, which you pay taxes on, most will take the easy or cheaper way out.
Someone mentioned donating it, but from what I've experienced, they are pretty flooded with boats, I tried to donate a few hulls that had some potential, but was told that it would take months for them to get to it, and I had to store it while they auctioned it off. That wasn't an option for me, so they got taken to the dump or cut up.
