Unwanted boat hulls

[vintageglass]

Over the past few years I've accumulated a few dozen old boat hulls, most were bought as parts or for their motors or trailers.
The local landfill won't take them, trash pickup won't take them, and their too far cut up or stripped to find a taker on CL.
Any ideas? (Other than a long ride down a short road).

I did give a few away to a farmer who made dog houses or something from them, but they're piling up out back and its only a matter of time before the township gets on me about it.

I've gone as far as crushing up a few with a dozer and burying the remains but I'd be a year busting up all of them. I've gotten a lot of good motors and trailers, and other parts buying whole parts boats but in the last few years they've been a hassle to get rid of. A long time ago I used to just cut them up small enough to box the remains so the trash collection guys didn't find them but lately they open boxes and look before they toss.
The closest place that takes fiberglass boats is 2 hours away and $72 per ton.

I've actually cut a few smaller hulls up into sort of winter covers for other boats to support tarps, but I don't need two dozen tarp supports.
A few have potential but no papers, and they've been stripped of rubrails, interiors, and all trim.

Any ideas?

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

I've accumulated a few dozen old boat hulls, most were bought as parts or for their motors or trailers.

The closest place that takes fiberglass boats is 2 hours away and $72 per ton.

Kinda sounds like it's going to be a very expensive and time consuming removal to me.




The only other thing I can think of is to rent the biggest construction trash container you can find...

http://www.wastenations.com/images/roll-off-container.jpg

Then I would rent one of these...

http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae162/allmydadsstuff/June 2011 Sales/IMG_0006-3.jpg

...to cut em up into small enough pieces to lay flat in the container. Call the company to pick up the full one and drop off an empty. Repeat till all the boats are gone.

 

[oops!]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

yeah....the land fills wont take boats......but they will take pieces of fiberglass.....get out your chain saw

 

[hollenhund]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

If you're near deep water i.e. ocean or BIG lake you can always ask the nearest diving group if they would sponsor an artificial reef. I know they do that in FL. As long as there are no fuel or battery contaminants Davy Jones Locker will take e'm. Also check with the State DNR. Also you may want to post on the Free Stuff in craigslist.org its amazing what people will grab if its "free". Good Luck.

 

[oops!]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

that might be fun for divers.. a grave yard of hulls.......take out the foam and cut large open sides....then have the divers sink em in various positions on the sea bottom.

 

[vintageglass]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

I thought about sinking them but the ocean tends to move small boats around, I'd have to fill them with concrete and gut out any foam. Besides, I doubt if it's legal.

I have a Stihl TS350, but it's far from the best method of cutting up a boat, nor is a chainsaw.
A plain old circular saw is faster but it makes lots of dust. I can flatten them with a dozer, which seems to be the most likely fate for most of these, if no one will take them, they get pushed down deep into the ground and buried forever.

There's already been a few boats just abandoned at various boat ramps, usually just stripped out hulls set afloat and left to sink.
I took a quick count and counted 27 hulls that are junk, either no paperwork or they were I/O boats with no motor or drive, or just boats that are full of wet foam and rotten wood. The smaller boats are no big deal but boats over say 19' take too long to cut up. I tried the propane trick of turning the hull over and filling it with propane gas, then igniting it but it's not very thorough, it breaks up the hull but it still leaves big chunks.
Crushing them up with a track loader works best, no tires to puncture and the shear weight of the machine all but pulverizes the boat.
The local landfill won't even take fiberglass chunks, I'd have to cut it up so small that I could hide it in boxes or bags.
The local trash collection is getting pretty picky lately, no bottles, cans, organic material, toxic waste, paint, oil, chemicals, tires, plastics, electronics, light bulbs, and the list goes on. They even open trash bags to make sure you didn't sneak in any grass clippings or leaves.
Fiberglass falls under toxic waste by their definition.

A few of the smaller hulls may be of use to someone in a non title state, there's a few 14 and 15' glass Starcraft boats that with some new wood would be decent boats again.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Around here BFI & Waste Management will take them, but there is a charge per hull (I think it's like $100). You may look into what kind of deal you can get out of one of those guys.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

The local trash collection is getting pretty picky lately, no bottles, cans, organic material, toxic waste, paint, oil, chemicals, tires, plastics, electronics, light bulbs, and the list goes on.

Yeesh,,, so if they don't take garbage, what do they take?

Kind of sounds like a tavern that doesn't serve alcohol.......

 

[relocyo]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Oooohhhh buddy, id have a pretty big bone to pick if they started looking THROUGH my garbage, granted when it goes to the side of the road its public property or whatever... I cant believe there is no where that would like the business of a guy wanting to trash some stuff... I think a good point was made at posting of craigslist as a "free for all" litteraly, everything is free! Come and get it, if it were me, id do exactly that, only advertise, "70 free boats, bring trailer, all have to go... FREE!!" I would imagine, theres a sucker born every day (im sure ill catch flack for that" but hell, screw it if you can unload half your stock! Your halfway there! Good luck, I definately wanna here the resolution to this! Cheers!

 

[vintageglass]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

I did give about half of them away on CL these are mostly the one's that never found a home over the years. There's not many takers for stripped out I/O hulls or a boat that need a transom, deck, and new rub rail. They are basically down to just fiberglass hulls, some were dragged where they are after the trailer sold.

The trash collection here is useless. I agree with recycling but they don't want 'organic waste' meaning no yard waste as in leaves, grass clippings or branches, food waste is OK. All paper gets recycled, but they won't take certain plastics. Soda bottles, cans, and some other plastic bottles. They also won't take 'construction waste' meaning no lumber, plywood, roofing, or sawdust. What it boils down to is that people just take their stuff and leave it somewhere.
They charge $35 per month for trash collection yet won't take the trash I have.

What I need to find is a place with a hammer mill to chop these up to bits. I had a place that used to drop of a dumpster and take the glass away for free, but I think they closed up. The landfill used to take boats but you had to cut them in half first. Now they don't want them no matter what. Tires are a bigger hassle now too. I've come to just take a Sawzall to tires or just leave them at a gas station or place of purchase after hours. The local tire store charges the same for tires mounted or not, so they might as well be the one's to get rid of them.

I picked up two more boats today with good outboards and good trailers, the boats are fixable but I need their rub rails, windshields, and other bits for other projects. When I'm done there will be nothing but glass. I used to just put anything that had potential outback but they just pile up. I gave $25 each for the boats at auction, got two running motors, two late model trailers, two fish finders, two windshields, and assorted gauges and seats. The rest is junk to me. I can't fix them all.
One is a Starcraft Fury from around 1965, the other an early 60's Sea King. No papers on either, neither have been registered in 30+ years. Both were bought to supply parts to identical boats I had that had titles.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

I picked up two more boats today ... The rest is junk to me.

Junk you can't seem to get rid of though.

Might not be a bad idea to figure out what you are going to do with (now) 29 junk boats before you buy any more, eh?

 

[Alwhite00]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Junk you can't seem to get rid of though.

Might not be a bad idea to figure out what you are going to do with (now) 29 junk boats before you buy any more, eh?

Does not seem like the best move at this point, Man - Figure out how to clean up what you have before getting any more "deals"

LK

 

[fourbox43]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

here you go call a local comercial trash companies and order you a roll off dumster tell them remodel project if they ask ( your not telling a lie you are remidling your yard) cut them up and put them in the dumpster if you have a dozer use it to pack down landfill dont have a choice but to take the trash at this point

 

[hollenhund]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Don't give up the boat yet ...er no pun intended. How about this for greenest idea ( no i'm not a tree huger either ). Take the yellow pages and find under restaurants all the seafood places in a 50 mile radius, ask for the owner or GM concerning a "free promotional initiative" that could possibly result in increase visibility and customer traffic. Get the idea? They get a boat they can decorate as an eye catcher for road traffic and you get a few square feet of land back. After all, what better to associate seafood with freshness than a boat just bringing in today's catch, right?. Paint a a mental picture than is meaningful to them and they will buy it....

 

[vintageglass]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Don't give up the boat yet ...er no pun intended. How about this for greenest idea ( no i'm not a tree huger either ). Take the yellow pages and find under restaurants all the seafood places in a 50 mile radius, ask for the owner or GM concerning a "free promotional initiative" that could possibly result in increase visibility and customer traffic. Get the idea? They get a boat they can decorate as an eye catcher for road traffic and you get a few square feet of land back. After all, what better to associate seafood with freshness than a boat just bringing in today's catch, right?. Paint a a mental picture than is meaningful to them and they will buy it....

That won't work here, they made a few guys even closer to the shore take down 'boat signs' like that deeming them eyesores.

I have about 10 acres of wooded land, they can pile up pretty far before they are seen. Worst case I run all of them over with the loader and dig a big hole.

I just can't figure why they make it such a hassle to get rid of something so common.
It's almost as if they are forcing you to do something illegal with them.
It'll be a cold day you know where before I pay so much as a dime to get rid of these.

I will most likely have 12 more tomorrow if the deal goes through. 12 free boats, one free 50hp Etech, 9 running motors and 12 roller trailers. The boats are most likely junk, and I doubt any have papers. Probably marina abandoned boats. 3 are aluminum, so worst case there is the salvage yard for those but in most cases I can even sell the aluminum boats without titles for some reason for more than scrap weight.

I was out fishing today, there were at least 2 boats tied up along the way that had no motors or numbers, most likely stripped and dumped.
I would never just cut one loose as it would become a navigational hazard but I can't say I'm too much against forgetting one or two at a boat ramp.

 

[chriscraft254]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

The land fills here will take them if they are stripped of epa bs. Also a few boats every year here go to boat burning parties along the river. Wonder what epa would think of that!

 

[junkpile]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Your mistake is going to the landfill during business hours, dump them out front over night. Then they have to take them.
If not I'd have to say there would be a few 'ghost ships' on the local waterway.
I'll never understand why if they want us to do the right thing, why then make it so expensive or difficult to do so?
The way I see it, if the boat has no paperwork, it was abandoned once already by the last owner, you would just be passing on the favor.

I'll never understand why they make reviving an old boat so much hassle, a lot of good boats go to the grave do to lack of paperwork. Don't they realize how most of these boats got this way in the first place? We're not talking about late model boats here, most of the boats I find here with no papers are 40+ years old or more. Its not likely someone would steal a 40 year old rotten hull so why not make getting a new title easier?

I was given a minty clean boat a few years ago that came from SC, with no papers, I gave up and stripped it after realizing all the BS I'd have to go through to get a title.
The boat was 'donated' at a nearby boat ramp soon after.

I could see if they felt that getting old boats off the water was in some way a benefit but those of us who run old boats most likely would never buy a new boat. I for one could never afford it.
I try to stay under the $500 invested mark on any boat. Beyond that and it's out of my league money wise.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Guys...

Dumping your trash on someone else's property, the public boat launch, or in your local lake because you are too cheap, lazy or irresponsible to deal with it yourself - not a good solution.

 

[Alwhite00]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Guys...

Dumping your trash on someone else's property, the public boat launch, or in your local lake because you are too cheap, lazy or irresponsible to deal with it yourself - not a good solution.

X2 - Why the hell would you do that, Then the launch owner or the next guy wanting to use the launch has to deal with it. Cut the damn thing up and throw it in a dumpster. You "bought" the crap, Now get rid of it and quit complaining if it will cost you $25.00.

LK

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Unwanted boat hulls

Being a litterbug came be very expensive!... and you may even spend some time in the CrossBar Hotel.