29 ton aluminum sailing vessel - able to scrap?

Hello,

Obviously this is my first time here and posting, so please bear with me and feel free to laugh at my ignorance.

I have a 29 ton aluminum hull sailing vessel that's 65ft long. The hull is solid aluminum about 3/8" thick, and the keel is full of lead. I have no idea if it's logistically possible to scrap this vessel, and searching around online has only shown me that people scrap 15 - 20ft aluminum fishing boats, etc.

I understand I'd have to clear out all the wood/interior/other random parts, but let's assume I can get her down to just the solid aluminum hull (painted). What the heck do I do next?? Am I best to try and cut her into pieces myself then just haul all that to a scrap yard? Or should I contract the yard to come cut her up?



Do scrap yards have the capacity to take around 40,000 - 50,000 lbs of aluminum and lead in one fell swoop?

Should I go through the trouble of sandblasting the antifouling paint off and stripping down to bare aluminum hull?

What kind of prices can I get here? I've seen anywhere from $0.30 - $0.55 per pound for aluminum, through searching this forum and elsewhere.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

The biggest thing is being able to get it onto dry land to dismantle/scrap it.

The question is? Do you have heavy machinery to break it down and move it in large pieces? The larger the pieces you can haul, the less work on your part.

If boat is on the hard in a location where breaking it down is not an issue, and you have the time & interest, I would start by quantifying what you have to determine actual scrap value vs. a viable hull for resale if still in good condition. I would guess a boat that size has a keel weight of 8000# or more, and actual lift weight minus interior may differ greatly from displacement tonnage so do an estimate of ft2 of aluminum x weight/ft2 of hull thickness. Some aluminum will have attachments (dirty Al/Al breakage), some will be clean (likely old sheet) - estimate each and get prices/lb. to get an estimated value. Separating the keel and extracting the lead would be my first move, then cutting the hull into as few pieces as possible to allow transport with a bare minimum gut job on the interior. I've done a bunch of boats, a few of which were aluminum up to 25' (riveted not welded) and would be glad to give you pointers if needed.
Or just invite me down to do it - FL looks a lot more fun than WI does right now!

Sell it as is to a scrap yard as dirty aluminum $.15 - $.20 lb Boat weighs 50,000 lbs so $7500 - $10K Not a bad deal!

Wow, thanks very much for all the input already!

So a few things to clarify - getting her onto the hard isn't really a problem, have contacted several good shipyards which can do it for us and get her on chocks/stands. Once we do strip the interior, I'm guessing it's probably best to lay the boat on it's side before starting to cut into it? She has a 9ft keel, with a giant bulb of lead on the bottom. I definitely don't have the tools to cut it all up myself....short of buying ten thousand sawsall blades, so I appreciate the input acknowledging that I can contract it out to a scrap yard.

Once we get the boat to Florida, I'll get in touch with some yards and see if they're willing to give us a quote and possibly send somebody down to take a look. I know a couple of you guys mentioned having done jobs with 25(ish) ft boats before....is there any way of finding someone in Florida who'd have similar experience. Or should I just start making phone calls?

What I would usually do in this situation is definitely contract a yard. You won't get absolute top dollar, but, you wont have to factor in things such as tools, and trips to and from the scrap yard. Essentially, you're flipping the boat. You bought it for XXXX.XX and the way your pitching it, it sounds like you'll get much more than XXXX.XX for it from a yard. Maximum payment for minimal time. You have to find the equilibrium and I suspect it's in contracting it out.

Most Scrapyard's have a hydraulic 'nibbler' (Shears?) that goes on the end of the cranes boom.
They use it to nibble up steel tanks and cut longer Iron into manageable bits.
They take a 2 foot+ long by 6 inch wide nibble at a time.
So most yards can nibble it down to a size where they can then put it in a car crusher to squeeze it into a near solid block.
So if you can cut it up into a large truck deck sized peices and get it to the yard, they can finish it off, after paying you for it.
You will probably get good money for the Lead too. One chunk and no battery acid to worry about.

maybe im just talking nonsense but what about contacting the big mills/smelters?
since its a large quantity of aluminium, maybe the big guys will be interested in it & hopefully offer a better price than a scrap yard?

The amount of aluminum in the boat is not enough to interest a "big mill" and smelters are not going to buy scrap.

Your best place to get top dollar would probably be directly to a secondary processor.