Wreck on display to highlight abandoned boat issue

A small yacht that was left to rot in a Cornish creek has been given a new lease of life as a museum exhibit.

The Hurley Burley has been installed in the foyer of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to raise awareness of the growing problem of abandoned "end of life" boats.

Campaigners say "hundreds" of mainly fibreglass boats have been abandoned on the Fal and Helford estuaries.

Jake Burnyeat, from Wreck Free Fal and Helford, said more than 150 abandoned boats had been logged so far on an online map but he warned "there are many more".

Mr Burnyeat, a sailor, said: "Most of the boats abandoned around our foreshores are small GRP [glass reinforced plastic] boats from the 1970s and 80s.

"Boats have got bigger since then and production volumes increased, so what we see now is a sign of a bigger problem to come."

Campaigners and local council members have previously called for registration schemes to help identify the owners of abandoned vessels.

National Maritime Museum Cornwall director Richard Doughty said exhibiting the Hurley Burley made it "a powerful symbol of the environmental impact abandoned vessels have".

He said the yacht highlighted the "growing risk they pose, to our natural landscapes and wildlife."

The vessel was dragged from a creek using a VW camper van driven by Steve Green from Clean Ocean Sailing.

He said he hoped the yacht made museum visitors stop and think about what happens to boats at the end of their life.

"We think she had been abandoned some 20 years ago and would have sat there for many more," he said.

"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."

Cornwall Council maritime manager Chris Jones said 74 abandoned vessels had been salvaged and scrapped since 2015 "at a significant cost to Cornwall Harbours".

"It would be a lot cheaper if we could deal with end of life boats before they get abandoned," he said.

"The longer they are left to decay, the more difficult and expensive they are to deal with."

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