Maybe you’ve had a boat sitting unused in your driveway for nearly a decade or maybe you’ve just inherited one that did. Maybe the boat has seen some good years of fishing, racing, waterskiing and carousing but hasn’t seen any in a while. Maybe the boat is still in great condition, but the upkeep is becoming expensive. At any rate something needs to be done about it, and here is a guide about how to get the burden off your shoulders. The best ways to open up that garage space or quit paying for space at the marina are to sell it, get a boat donation tax credit or, if it’s in bad enough condition, contact a boat salvage yard.
Selling Your Boat
Selling can be a hassle-filled profitless option, but it can also be rather rewarding knowing that your boat will live to see another harbor. Many handy individuals are looking for projects or ways to turn a profit, so those willing to sell a worn-in boat at a loss can probably move one pretty easily, depending on the condition. Some people may be willing to rebuild the craft themselves for the work. However, for some boats, the cost of repairs will exceed the estimated value of the craft making takers pretty hard to find.
Donating Your Boat
Boat donation is a valid option for those who don’t want to deal with the hassle of finding a buyer, transporting the boat, getting the correct method of payment, haggling over prices and placing ads. Donation is relatively simple, and you even get to claim the charity on your taxes, which could earn you more money than you would have gotten through sales. The only difficulty is often in choosing which organization to donate to. Ideally, the best organization would be one that aligns heavily with the donator’s interests and will maximize the tax benefits.
Scrapping Your Boat
Breaking down your boat yourself sounds like a big pain, but it’s often the only option for those who aren’t willing or able to sink time and money into a craft that isn’t high enough quality to sell or donate. Surprisingly, there are several ways to accomplish this. Many townships have a budget for cleaning up abandoned boats. Do some research and look to see if yours has anything like this.
Boat salvage yards will often take the crafts that can’t be donated or sold. Often with no cost to the owner, a salvager will come to the property assess the value of the craft and remove it for either a small cost or no cost according to the value of the components. A salvager makes their bottom line from breaking up the craft and selling the valuable components to those individuals who’re rebuilding craft of their own.
Taking the full craft to a junkyard is a possibility as well, although as with any junkyard the newly liberated dumper will be required to pay for this service, often by the pound. This could become exorbitant quickly, so contact the yard before traveling there to determine the costs.
Short of dragging the hull to a junkyard, a boat owner can often take a chainsaw to the hull, with proper face protection of course, and throw it away piecemeal. Wooden hulls can be used for firewood as well, if they’ve been stripped of all the chemicals that is. Alternatively, any vessel with a wooden hull could be useful to gardeners seeking to make aesthetically pleasing plant beds. These can be used on fruits and vegetables or flowers. All it takes is a little digging.
Many boat owners may be tempted by the unsponsored and illegal old-world method of scuttling leaving a boat somewhere to break apart by itself. Not only is it against the law in most places, but it’s detrimental to the environment as well. Previously, most sunken craft were made of wood or at worst a composite metal but now everything is synthetic. Fiberglass and plastics dominate the market meaning these boats will take thousands of years to decompose.
All in all, there are many ways to get rid of a watercraft; each is dependent on the situation and state of repair. Some are better for the community as a whole while others benefit particular individuals more specifically. Worst comes to worst, an advertisement for a free boat available for pickup might do the trick.