Chainsaw or Sawzall -- disposing of a non-classic

[bhartley]

First, I would never, ever chop up a boat unless it was hopeless. This is hopeless -- HOWEVER, its sitting on a 8,000 GVW galvanized trailer. There is some salvageable stuff on the boat still (pulpits, genoa tracks) but the rest has sat for 8+ years with everything else removed.

Anyone have experience with demolition? We have a 10 ton dump truck and a construction & demolition landfill with very reasonable rates. The 2,000 keel is lead and will be sold off. We also have a tractor with a good sized bucket and some other heavy equipment available to us. No crane or lifting equipment other than the tractor.

I know all about the dangers of fiberglass and suiting up properly -- I need some help with a plan of attack. The boat is 28' (and currently a swamp but we have pumps). It's a 70's boat so it's not Hunter-thick fiberglass - Fin keel.

If you've done this before, how long did it take? I have several volunteers to help who think it sounds like "fun". Clearly I need to find new friends.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Bly

[catamount]

Bly, you might take a look at this site: http://chesapeakeboatdisposal.com/

Obviously they are trying to sell their service, but the tips and comments do raise some issues you probably want to consider.

Regards,

[bhartley]

Thanks for the link. They do make some important points most of which we have already dealt with. The boat is truly gutted with no engine, etc. The boat yard is very anxious to get rid of the boat as the land has been sold so they are being very accomodating. Our C&D landfill will take the fiberglass, but we are working on finding any recyclers who can use the materials rather than just putting them in a hole.

[Summersdawn]

Inquiring minds want to know....

Are you going to post some pictures of your demolition party? Perhaps a video?

Morbid curiosity, of course.

[bhartley]

Come on down and join the party... Fall is a beautiful time here in NE GA.

My step-daughter wants to be sure to be here to help and her brother finally got a Sawzall for Christmas last year. Its a 5 hour drive for him, but I expect he might join in. The fact that I owned my own Sawzall (a gift from Dad) helped me win favor with him early on in the process.

My husband returned home with many pictures of the proposed boat/trailer and I'm not convinced we can get the mess home in once piece. His idea was to offer a deal to the owner -- we'll pay you IF the boat makes it the 1 hour drive.

We have a great trailer for our SS which weighs 3,350lbs. The new boat weighs 5,500. We need to put new tires on the SS trailer. I'm not convinced that using higher rated tires would make it workable.

The "real" new boat (not the piece of junk to be cut up) is going to be worth the headaches now -- at least I keep telling my husband that.

Bly

[Summersdawn]

Come on down and join the party... Fall is a beautiful time here in NE GA.

I'd love to, but I'm on the west coast of Canada - kind of a long commute. My plan was to live vicariously through some photos...

[kendall]

and what happened to all the other goodies from it?
pulpits can be easily sold off.

Would you mind shooting a photo of the trailer to me? I'm in the planning stages of building a trailer for my boat (28 ft pearson triton) and am collecting pictures pretty much to see any unique ideas in use.

ken.

[Mark.Wilme]

Why use pumps ? just drill a couple of holes in it and let the water drain out - will reduce your towing weight some too.

[Tim]

It took a short afternoon to remove the entire deck and cockpit from Triton #100 during the initial Daysailor preparations. Nathan (my helper) and I did the job using just a single Sawzall and grunt work.

Deck Demolition and Removal

It goes to follow that cutting up a hull wouldn't take much longer. I'd use that tractor and bucket to your great advantage. The power of hydraulics will help greatly with breaking and crushing the deck and hull into transportable pieces. Something like a backhoe or excavator would really be handy. Any chance of a grapple on that tractor or your other equipment? If I'd had my tractor and bucket when I worked on the Daysailor demolition, I might have approached some things differently. Always use mechanical means when you can!

I think I'd probably try to find some way to get the hull off the trailer and then break/cut it up. You want to save the trailer, obviously, so you'd have to do this with some care, but you don't care what happens to the boat. Things are much easier on the ground. If you can remove the keel first, and get it out of the way, getting the hull off the trailer wouldn't be overly difficult.

Just drill or saw some big holes in the hull to drain it. No need for pumps, which will probably clog frequently with whatever detritus there might be inside the "swampy" boat.

It's too bad to have to cut up a boat, but some boats are just beyond help and aren't worth saving anyway. I think it sounds like a fun time and a good way to get out your aggressions!

Pictures and details, please! What kind of boat is it? Knowing might very well help get more specific answers for a plan of attack.

[Bob L]

How about hauling out to the country, pulling off the trailer, then employing Man's oldest friend - fire :) Yeah yeah, it involves the dangers of self-immolation, starting a wildfire, EPA issues, and the fact that your roasted mashmellows might taste a little funny... but a few gallons of unleaded and a match would sure be easy... *sigh*

[Quetzalsailor]

You'd be astonished at how fast fiberglass dulls blades! Granted that I was sawing a really dense layup of roving about 3/8" thick, but I dulled a carbide 10" circular saw blade in perhaps 4' of cut, and two bandsaw blades in maybe 1' of cut.

[Tim]

Fiberglass does dull blades quickly.

I found some carbide-tipped Sawz-All blades at McMaster-Carr that are effective for this sort of demolition. They're worth the money if you are thinking of using your saw to cut the boat apart.

[bhartley]

Tim,

Do you have a McM-C part number?

We are doing the carving on the junk boat next week. The survey on the *GOOD* new boat is on Friday and we hope to return with her from the coast on Saturday. We have a loaner trailer for the move while the welder transforms our salvage trailer.

Bly

[Tim]

Here's a direct link to the catalog page.

http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.asp?pagenum=2243

The ones I have used are 4106A16, the 6" long, 3/4" wide, 6 TPI version. They also have a 3-1/2", 9", and 12", each available with 3 TPI or 6 TPI. All of these are listed on the catalog page at the link above.

These are very expensive, but are well worth it. They last a long time and cut very effectively through nasty combinations of wood and fiberglass.

[bhartley]

Any ideas on how many blades you used? Of course, we have more to cut up but a ballpark would help.

We met with the welder today to look at the photos to make sure it was worth the trouble and she couldn't believe we hadn't moved it already!

The boat is 27' with a 8'6" beam. Looking at your demolition photos on the daysailor was a huge help. We're going to get all of the hardware off tomorrow. It's still unclear if the keel is lead or steel. At 2,000+lbs, we're certainly hoping for lead to help fund this debacle!

Bly

[Tim]

I did the demolition you see with regular blades, not the carbide. I discovered those a little later in the process; they came in very handy cutting through the bulkhead tabbing and so forth.

Not only do the carbide tips dull more slowly, but these heavy blades don't break the way normal blades do. You can twist them into a pretzel, but they don't snap. Therefore, you can eke a lot of life out of a single blade.

I buy the carbide blades 6 at a time--my personal balance between the need for stock (spares) and the high cost. I wouldn't approach your job with fewer on hand. I'd probably have more, just in case...extras can always be returned, or kept for the next big job. I'd have regular blades on hand too, to fill out the inventory.