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Where do superyachts go to die? Yacht Graveyard?

Discussion in 'General Yachting Discussion' started by todd, Oct 14, 2015.

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  1. todd

    todd Member

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    As I look around in various magazines and online for sale sites ,and read about all the new super yacht builds I wonder,What happens to all the old ones that are no longer wanted or viable to restore or refit,some of the latest yachts are built in an old graceful manner but to modern standards,so this would seem to confirm that the old ,is just not worth saving.
    So for me this leaves two interesting questions,what happens to them,and are there any yachts in the 60 to 70 ft range that are worth saving, an example might be an early CRN, or fedship,,I ask as I have aspirations of owing a 60-70 ft and love the look of those classic yachts ,but after spending a great deal of time money and energy on my Bertram 42 ,I've learned the hard way that restoring old boats is not for the faint of heart, as one of my contractors said to me "with your money and my time we can achieve anything "
    It just seems so much easier to buy a late model pilot house and be done with it,but they mostly lack the grace of yesteryears yachts, I will be very interested to to ready your responses
    Regards Todd
  2. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    They go to the Miami River, New River or one of those yards on either side of Lake Okeechobee to die so it seems. Where you hit the nail on the head, and inexperienced people buy them thinking they're going to restore them, get partway into the project, then run out of money, time, and patience and they sit and rot again. BUT, with the higher metal prices some of the old steel Burgers and Aluminum Browards and such have been cut up for scrap metal.
  3. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    The worst situations are the ones sold on Craigslist or given away or sold for
    $10 in Key West to people who know no better, whether young or homeless or whomever. They have no idea that the boat is free but moving it will cost plenty and involve danger of it sinking. They're sitting all around deserted and derelict. This isn't the spend $100,000 and you have a $50,000 boat, but sold to people who can't spend anything on them.
  4. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    As I cautioned someone recently, you never want to be a boat's last owner. Some may think 'at the very least I can part it out or sell it for scrap', but there's not much call for old toilets. electronics or fittings unless they're from something special like a Hatteras. And no professional scrapper is going to pay anything if it'll cost them a ton to move and a ton more to cut up and sell. While there may be some value in old steel or aluminum, there's none in old fiberglass or wood. So the guy who bought that old girl and ended up her last owner has to pay, sometimes big time, to dispose of her.

    Must say though, when I saw the thread title I didn't expect to see it referring to 60'-70' boats. Have superyachts shrunk? I'm curious about the 100' to 200'. Many millions invested in these, and with the number being produced these days and the mega-rich all seeming to want only the latest and greatest (new) I wonder about the ones built 15 to 30 years ago. Something tells me there's a lot of "losses" being written off someplace. For instance, back in the early 90's Jim ***** had a gorgeous 167' Gallant Lady Fedship that he was asking $18M for. It later became the Detroit Eagle (we all know the owner, but I won't mention since he's still with us). Does she still exist? If so what's her value today. Where did or will something like that meet her end?
  5. todd

    todd Member

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    Thanks for the replies. NYCap ,like you my curiosity surrounded the larger boats built in the last 20-40 years, there seems to have been an explosion of wealth that translated into a large number of what must be approaching obsolete yachts built during that time, and the millions invested in them makes me even more curious to know what happens to those larger yachts,so if anyone can share a story about the demise of these larger super yachts I would love to hear about it,
    It's as if there is not enough second and third level wealth to keep these old girls on the water,and further more it seems that most of the old lay outs and designs just don't cut it in today's world,perhaps if the designs had been better they may have stayed on the water? But the old lines of a graceful yacht seem to endure in today's world. I just love the lines on that new "Kitalpha 22" she's the kind of boat I would love to own,alas I am not a billionaire
  6. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    There was a 98' Burger posted on here built in the 1950's, also a Broward MY "seafari" that sunk, someone put a few hundred thousand into yet never finished. Both were sold to a scrapper who cut them up and recycled them. The 20 to 40 year old yachts over 80' are pretty much all made out of steel or aluminum with scrap value, when scrap prices were high it made sense to cut them up with a torch and haul them to the recycler. The ones older than that out of wood had to be disposed of or burned.....Not too many over 80' out of fiberglass from that era.....
  7. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    That's where it's really going to get expensive. Fortunately the life of a fiberglass boat is longer, if from the better manufacturers. You've got some very old Hatteras' still going strong. But Fiberglass over 100' came later and it will be a long time, but one day people will need to dispose of some 120's and 160's.
  8. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Boats like some women have a funny ability to encourage men to empty their wallets trying to preserve the past or at least give it a nip and tuck where their mates say it needs one, this whole process is often called a Refit.

    Over the years there have been some very good ones and there have been some very bad/sad ones.

    There have also been some that were cut up. I know of one ( It is mentioned here on YF) that was at one stage if not the fastest afloat but very close that was cut up and recycled at the shipyard right next to the one that had built it originally.
  9. AMG

    AMG YF Moderator

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    Yes, and that was a shame, one of the nicest boats ever built...
  10. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    She still exists under the name Ice Bear from what can be seen online.
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 15, 2015
  11. Marmot

    Marmot Senior Member

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    It looks like a couple of boats are getting mixed up ... Detroit Eagle was never one of the Gallant Lady tribe and is still alive and well as Sea Racer. It is one of the boats with the cleanest generator exhaust known to man.

    My avatar shows Sea Racer's incredibly beautiful generator room.
  12. AMG

    AMG YF Moderator

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    There was a Gallant Lady (Feadship) that became Detroit Eagle, but she was just 116'. She later became Allegra and Ozark Lady.
  13. Marmot

    Marmot Senior Member

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    Thanks for the info ... I missed that one. When it was Detroit Eagle was the owner the same one who built the Detroit Eagle I mentioned or just a coincidence?
  14. AMG

    AMG YF Moderator

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    It was RP and then he was building the new YachtFish where the propulsion was on his wishlist...
  15. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I believe so. He bought it off of Gallant Lady, then liked it so much he ordered the bigger one and had a penchant for speed at the time.
  16. JSChapman

    JSChapman New Member

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    @todd raises a good point... It's beginning to be a real issue that's not going to go away. Some of the larger older yachts (Burger, Feadship, Broward, Cheoy Lee, Westship, etc... to name a few) that have been on the market for multiple years with no interest can cost their owners 1/4 to 1/3rd of their total value (and sometimes more) each year to maintain. Donation is an option for some, but my experience is that even this is becoming selective among the larger recipients in the arena unless the vessel is reasonably well maintained.
  17. Marmot

    Marmot Senior Member

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    Thanks for the info guys. It really is a spectacular boat from an engineer's point of view.
  18. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    Now I'm curious. The 167 was one of my all time favorites (She and Echo). After looking at pics of Sea Racer, Detroit Eagle and Allegra my old fading memory isn't recognizing her. (It's been 20 years since I've seen her. Saw Detroit Eagle in Newport around 2000 and thought that was her.) With there having been over 200 Gallant Ladys it can get confusing. The one I'm talking about graced the dock at the Marriot in F.L. for years in the early 90's. She had a heliport on the foredeck that raised and a beautiful Riva speedboat/launch would be carried out on slings from underneath and lowered off the side. I believe there was a second launch under there as well. Seating at the dining table for 18, beautiful skylounge with fiber-optic stars in the ceiling, and a fighting chair on the aft deck (I used to muse that anything caught would be sushi before it made its way inside). I kept her sales brochure for years, but it's gone now. The Morans were truly epic yacht owners.
  19. JSChapman

    JSChapman New Member

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    This was the first Detroit Eagle (that I know of). It was built as Gallant Lady (Mr. *****), then became Detroit Eagle, Allegra, and now Osark Lady.

    OZARK-LADY-2.jpg
  20. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    I know of a situation recently where someone tried to dump a derelict boat on a charity. They almost fell for it, but then had someone go check it out.