Raising awareness: ‘dead boat’ installed in National Maritime Museum foyer
A small yacht left to rot in a Helford creek is being given a second life as a museum exhibit.
The ‘Hurley Burley’ was installed in the foyer of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to raise awareness of the growing problem of abandoned ‘end of life’ boats.
The exhibit marks the launch of the Wreck Free Fal and Helford initiative. It aims to tackle the problem of abandoned boats in the estuaries.
Organisers say hundreds of vessels have been left there and add that the majority are fibreglass vessels which consist of Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP).
More than 100 people attended the first meeting of the Wreck Free Fal and Helford forum. The event was held in the museum theatre at the end of last month.
Attendees included harbour authorities, yacht clubs, the RYA, boat yards, foreshore owners, moorings operators, conservation groups, parish and Cornwall councillors together with Truro and Falmouth MP, Jayne Kirkham.
‘When a car reaches the end of its life you can take it to a scrapyard, get paid a few hundred pounds, and it will get recycled,’ says Fal sailor Jake Burnyeat who Chaired the event which saw presentations from a number of organisations.
‘It costs a lot of money to dispose of a boat responsibly so sadly they often get left in the corner of a creek to die; leaking toxic paints, oils and microplastics into the ocean.’
‘Wreck Free Fal and Helford have logged over 150 abandoned boats around the Fal and Helford so far via our online wreck map and database but there are many more. Anyone can add a boat that appears to be abandoned via our website wreckfree.org’
Working towards a better future (left to right): Amie Fulton (Sailors Creek CIC), Chris Jones (Cornwall Harbours’ Maritime Manager), Jake Burnyeat (Wreck Free Fal and Helford), Steve Green (Clean Ocean Sailing) and Emma McGee (Sailors’ Creek CIC). Image: Clare James Photography.
‘What we see now is a sign of a bigger problem to come’
‘Most of the boats abandoned around our foreshores are small GRP boats from the 1970s and 1980s. Boats have got bigger since then and production volumes increased, so what we see now is a sign of a bigger problem to come.’
‘There are around 5,000 moorings on the Fal and Helford. None of those boats are going to live forever.’
‘At some point each of them will become too much for someone. A Defra report in 2023 cited an average of 2% of boats reach the end of their life each year.’
‘So at some point locally we will face a problem averaging around 100 boats a year, and that is just the Fal and Helford. So it is a question of how do we tackle this issue before it becomes too late?’
The event heard how donations have helped Clean Ocean Sailing to clear small wrecks from the Fal and Helford foreshores.
There was also a chance to listen to how Sailors Creek CIC have cleared more than 57 tonnes of boat waste from Sailors’ Creek, near Flushing.
Organisers are now looking at ways to clean up the hundreds of abandoned ‘end-of-life’ boats around the Fal and Helford estuaries.
They also plan to examine how to stop vessels being abandoned in the first place and how fibreglass boats can potentially be recycled.
The Hurley Burley: ‘a powerful symbol’
‘The National Maritime Museum Cornwall curates ambitious and unexpected exhibitions,’ says Richard Doughty, Director of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.
‘We are home to the ‘National Small Boat Collection’ which illustrates the important role small boats play in shaping the world we live in.’
‘Hurley Burley, is a small glass reinforced polymer yacht. It was irresponsibly discarded in Helford Creek and left to rot by an anonymous owner.’
‘Exhibited as a ‘dead boat’, it becomes a powerful symbol of the environmental impact abandoned vessels have and the growing risk they pose, to our natural landscapes and wildlife.’
‘While we are sad there is a need to exhibit this wreck, we welcome the opportunity to work alongside ‘Wreck Free Falmouth and Helford’ to highlight their invaluable work, to raise awareness of sustainable practices and to inspire visitors to safeguard our environment for future generations.’
Attendees heard how France is successfully tackling the problem with ‘free at use scrappage yards’ around the coast. Around 11,000 ‘end of life’ boats have taken to these centres since 2019. The country also has a national boat registration scheme.
The forum discussed whether a free scrappage scheme for the Fal and Helford could be funded by a small charge on moorings fees.
‘There are around 5,000 moorings on the Fal and Helford. A charge of £20 per mooring would generate £100,000 a year which would go a long way to disposing of the smaller wrecks in the harbour,’ says local sailor Peter Bentley who tabled the idea that a small charge could go a long way to dealing with the problem.
The Hurley Burley: Abandoned for 20 years
The messy task of dragging the ‘Hurley Burley’ out of Anna Maria creek was tackled by Clean Ocean Sailing’s Steve Green (with the help of his trusty million mile VW camper, Cecil).
‘She had been used as rubbish bin and was full of silt. We think she had been abandoned some 20 years ago and would have sat there for many more.’
‘In her prime she would have been a great little weekender. Boats get beyond viable repair for many reasons.’
‘Their owners run out of money, they run out of time, they find another hobby, they buy another boat, they move away, they get ill or they die. We can’t change that.’
‘But we can stop boats getting abandoned by providing a viable alternative with free at use scrappage.’
Steve hopes the Hurley Burley will give thousands of visitors to the Maritime Museum over the next few months a prompt to stop and think about what happens to boats at the end of their life.
A short film about the Hurley Burley has already received over 50,000 views and lots of positive comments.
