Sailboat Removal - 28ft and Up
Keel sailboats are the single hardest category of vessel to get rid of in Florida. Mast, rig and ballast all have to be handled separately. Any size, with 28ft+ our speciality.
Why sailboats get refused
Almost every 'we take any boat' hauler in Florida is set up for trailerable powerboats. A keel sailboat breaks that model in three places at once: the mast has to come down before the hull can travel on a road, the fixed keel means the boat will not sit on a standard trailer or bunk, and the draft means a lot of yards physically cannot lift it out at their well depth.
The result is that owners of 30-50ft sailboats call five companies, get five polite refusals or one absurd number, and the boat sits at a mooring accruing slip fees for another two years. That is the exact job this company was built for.
What the work actually involves
- Unstep the mast - a crane pick in its own right, with the standing rigging cut away and the spar sectioned for transport or set aside for resale.
- Haul out on a travel lift sized to the displacement, or a mobile crane at a private seawall where no lift is reachable.
- Drop or cut the ballast keel. On a 40ft cruiser this is typically 6,000-10,000 lbs of lead or iron, and it carries scrap value that comes off your bill.
- Pump and manifest fuel, oil, coolant and holding tank contents before any cutting starts.
- Strip the recoverable gear - engine, winches, electronics, ground tackle, sails - then shear the hull and haul the fibreglass to a Class I landfill by weight.
Documentation
If the boat is USCG documented, the documentation has to be surrendered and cancelled. If it is state titled, the title has to be transferred or a derelict title obtained. We handle both. If you inherited the boat and cannot find the paperwork at all, say so on the first call - it is a solvable problem but it changes the timeline.
28 feet and over is our speciality — not our limit. Larger vessels are what our equipment, permits and yard relationships are built around, and they are the jobs most haulers decline. Smaller boats are welcome too. See what the work costs and how to vet whoever you hire.
Other situations we handle
Tell us about the boat.
Send photos, a location and whatever paperwork exists. We will tell you what it takes to make it go away — and if there is a cheaper legal route than hiring us, we will tell you that too.