My next project

mike_l

Did Chilli finally find a toaster, what you've since, ahem, acquired, and are now attempting to torment the poor fellow by burying it in the mud?

Myranda

Maybe it's step 1 in boat building and learning to sail? 

Step 1 - have water

Emp_Fab

The tide is out......

holnrew

Boat harvesting?

Emp_Fab

We have a winner !!

In the foreground is a semi-submerged speedboat.  It's been there for years like that.  I have no idea what state it's in below the mud - it might have a big hole in it for all I know.  On the other hand - it is fibreglass, which shouldn't rot.  My plan is to wade out there with a shovel and dig the bugger out.  I don't know whose boat it is / was, but it's safe to say they don't seem to have any interest in it !

If it's intact below the surface, my plan is to get it home (god knows how !) and resurrect it over the winter.  If that all goes well, I'll get an outboard motor and go tootling up and down the coast.

There is another seemingly abandoned boat nearby....

However...  that one isn't really the type of boat I like, plus - more importantly - it presents far greater difficulty in that I'd have to make serious efforts to try to track down the owner (if they're still alive) etc....  Digging a half-sunken hull out of the mud is one thing, taking a floating boat on a mooring is quite another - even if it's been there for the past nine years that I've lived here and hasn't moved an inch.

bertie

(another) heart attack waiting to happen..................

Myranda

I'd look up boat salvage laws just to be on the safeside

fatherjack

bertie said:

(another) heart attack waiting to happen..................

Actually, I was thinking of some sort of variant on this...

Emp_Fab

Oh I'll be alright... it's only digging mud !  I'm not going to attempt the world record for speed mud digging

It's such a shame about that other boat - it's got an inboard engine too.  That would a great little project for someone, but what can you do ?  I hate seeing things going to waste and ruin if they can be brought back to life with some TLC.  The trouble is, there isn't a 'DVLA' for small boats.  There is no central register to query who the owner is / was.  All you can do is ask everyone locally - and then you run the risk that some scrote is either going to claim it's his (you having alerted him to the fact that there's an apparently free boat going) - or worse - wait until you've done it up and got it back in the water and then pop up to say "Oy ! - That's my boat !".

Emp_Fab

Myranda said:

I'd look up boat salvage laws just to be on the safeside

What ?  For that half-sunken thing ?  I'll take my chances on that one !

As for Fatherjack's concern that I might end up drowned in some terrible boat-cockle-mud disaster.....  er....  I appreciate your concern but the thing is about twenty feet from land on a high tide.  I could continue to dig it out on a full spring tide and still not drown.  I wouldn't be able to see the boat, the mud or my shovel mind !

ddlooping

Cool project, me like.

stickyfiddle

So theft, then? Nice!

mike_l

I reckon he's still doing it so he can hind the bodies. And Chilli's toaster. :-)

Emp_Fab

stickyfiddle said:

So theft, then? Nice!

Awww c'mon !!  The thing has been there for at least nine years FFS !  I think it's safe to say that the original owner isn't particularly interested in it anymore.

Strangely enough.... something has crossed my mind... as unlikely as it is.... it still remains possible....

Back in nineteen hrrmph-ty-hrrrmmfff (probably around 1980), my dad had a 25ft ketch (we only had it one season before we discovered it was as rotten as a compost heap and could have killed us both)... anyway...  one day we were out sailing in the bay and just as we changed tack, we spotted two blokes swimming in the water.  Now, this was a good mile offshore and nowhere near any of the popular bays.  We initially presumed they were a couple of these mad long distance swimmer types until I saw one of them was wearing jeans !  After a quick exchange along the lines of "What the fuck are you doing out here ?" etc, it transpired that their speedboat had sunk.  They had bought a second hand speedboat between them and, without any nautical training or knowledge, had taken it out to go fishing in.  They started out from Swansea docks and picked a place to fish.  Then.... and this is the facepalm moment....  lobbed an anchor over the side and secured the line to a cleat on the stern.

For those unaware of boaty terms, they tied the anchor rope to the back of the boat - the flat bit.

Inevitably, instead of the waves breaking either side of the bow (as they would have done had they secured the anchor line to the bow), they simply slapped against the transom (the vertical back end), and spilled into the boat.  Both of them then went to the back of the boat to bail it out, but this just compounded things making the arse end sink even quicker.  In no time the boat went under and they were in the water.  They had no lifejackets, no flares and no radio.

When we found them they had been in the water for over three hours and had drifted three miles with the outgoing tide, which was taking them out to sea down the Bristol Channel.  Both of them had huge water blisters under their arms and were well knackered.

We managed to drag them onboard and headed back to our mooring in the Mumbles.  One of the chaps just went below and laid down for the remainder of the journey, but the other stayed with us in the cockpit.  He told us that they had drifted right past a tanker anchored in the bay and were screaming their heads off, but weren't heard by anyone.  He also said that before we appeared, they were trying to swim to the Mixen buoy (it marks a local sandbank) where they planned to hang on.  He told us that his mate was the weaker swimmer and was really struggling and that he (the bloke talking) was trying to decide whether to swim for the buoy alone and hopefully save himself, leaving his mate to drown - or - to try to help his mate and risk the both of them drowning.  Thankfully, we turned up before he had to make that call.  The speedboat had drifted with them and we spotted the bow just breaking the surface a couple of times but then we lost it and it never reappeared.

We got back to our mooring and took them back to shore in the dinghy and that was that.  I bumped into the pair of them about a year later in my local, and they remembered me and bought me a pint.

Anyhow.... it did cross my mind whether this half-submerged jobby I'm looking at might be the very same boat.....  the tidal flow could have brought it up here.  I seem to remember theirs being bigger though, but... it could be !

Arrrrrr...... more salty sea-dog tales another time eh, me hearties !

Anyway.... we delivered the bomb.

holnrew

I did actually like that story. Good job you were there.

chillidoggy

You're in luck Emp. I know a bit about boats.

Misterg

I think you're mad! I'm sure you could pick up an un-loved boat for next to nothing if you asked around. One that needed a bit of tlc, rather than digging out of the mud... There are 10 "speed boats" that sold for between £50 and  £200 on evil buy recently - some even had engines and/or trailers!

Still, each to their own

(Of course you could do it legit: https://www.gov.uk/wreck-and-salvage-law )

Emp_Fab

Misterg said:

I think you're mad! I'm sure you could pick up an un-loved boat for next to nothing if you asked around. One that needed a bit of tlc, rather than digging out of the mud... There are 10 "speed boats" that sold for between £50 and  £200 on evil buy recently - some even had engines and/or trailers!

Still, each to their own

(Of course you could do it legit: https://www.gov.uk/wreck-and-salvage-law )

I don't know what terms you used to search with, but I couldn't find bugger all anywhere near £50 ! http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=speed+boat&_sop=15&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=1293&_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR7.TRC0.A0.Xspeedboat&_nkw=speedboat&_sacat=1293

Either way, it would probably cost me loads to get it from wherever it is to here.  At least my mud-boat is just over the road !

Interesting link on the salvage law - thanks for that.  

Misterg

Well there was one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Driver-500-19ft-Hull-No-Trailer-No-Engine-Bare-boat-Ex-Racing-Smooth-Hull-/251307718189?pt=UK_Power_Boats&hash=item3a831b762d

Not exactly handy for S. Wales, either...

Emp_Fab

Misterg said:

There are 10 "speed boats" that sold for between £50 and  £200 on evil buy recently - some even had engines and/or trailers!

Misterg said:

Well there was one:

....that didn't have an engine or a trailer either. )

I've just been poking around on ebay and found this listing:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAILING-YACHT-16-TWINKEEL-UNKNOWN-SPECIFICATION-JAYBEE-BOAT-/380688144546?pt=UK_Sporting_Goods_Sailing_Boats_ET&hash=item58a2c818a2

"I would like to sell this yacht ,I know nothing about sailing and have little interest either please see the photos attached

Can confirm the following

Its is located  at Manheim Auction site in Colchester where I bought it by accident"

I want to know the story behind that one !!  How the hell can you a) not know anything about sailing and b) manage to buy a yacht 'by accident' !!  )