In the port of Lézardrieux, the area where abandoned boats are stored is nicknamed the elephant graveyard. Small, large, there are all kinds. The biggest is a sailboat over nine meters that has been there for 22 years.
Some owners not found
Their owners are dead, unknown or no longer have the means to maintain them. “There is a sailboat here, the guys at the port saw it lying there one morning, without any news from the owner. It has been there for seven years”, says Renaud Emmanuel maritime technician in charge of the port police. This boat, like nine other abandoned or dilapidated ships from the port of Lézardrieux, will all be transported to Lannion where they will be dismantled in a specialized center.
Deconstruction fully supported
France is the first country in the world to have set up a sector for the dismantling of pleasure boats at the end of their life. “Today, the dismantling of a boat is 100% covered”explains Guillaume Arnauld Des lions, general delegate of the Association for Eco-Responsible Pleasure Craft (APER). “An owner of an old worthless boat, who does not know what to do with it or who knows that he will no longer be able to repair it, can very simply have his boat taken care of by the sector”.
In Brittany, there are nine APER treatment centers, including that of Lannion in the Côtes d’Armor. The boats are cleaned up, deconstructed, their materials recovered at 70% in the form of material recycling or energy production.
– John Moison