Dilapidated Brixham trawler will be dismantled

Eysore is finally going

A derelict fishing boat which was left to rot alongside the quay in Brixham Harbour will be leaving the port at last.

“This is fantastic news,” said Cllr Andrew Strang (Con, Furzeham with Summercombe), who chairs Torbay council’s harbour committee. “I’m sure we will all be very glad to see her gone.”

And the local harbour authority summed up by adding: “We won’t miss her.”

The dismantling of the Accumulate will bring an end to a long-running saga in which she was even at one time being considered as a floating disco.

The vessel was originally known as the Saint Christophe I, and became notorious after she sank alongside the Embankment in Dartmouth in March 2016.

A government inquiry concluded that it happened because Dart harbour staff and the five-man crew of the French trawler had been unable to understand one another when discussing the danger of the boat grounding on the falling tide.

The boat duly grounded and toppled on to her side, sparking a major pollution alert in the River Dart. Large crowds gathered on the waterfront to watch the salvage operation.

Refloated, the blue and white boat was then towed to Brixham harbour for repairs, but has been there ever since, moored alongside near the fish quay and the Rockfish restaurant.

Sold to a new owner, the boat was renamed Accumulate, but over the years responsibility passed to the council as the harbour authority.

At one point Torbay’s harbourmaster said he would happily sell the boat for a pound if it meant getting rid of her. He told a committee meeting: “People think we are just letting it sit there, but we are actively trying to get rid of it.”

It was estimated at the time that it would cost around £50,000 to tow the boat away from the harbour, with breaking-up costs to add on top. People had talked about making her into a house-boat or even taking off the superstructure to use her as a barge.

In 2024 there were hopes that a deal had been struck to take the boat back across the Channel, but the deal foundered.

Now Accumulate has switched berths with the trawler Chloe of Ladram, which was damaged in February after striking rocks at Berry Head and is due for repairs.

Accumulate will then be alongside Middle Pier during the port’s Pirate Festival over the May Bank Holiday weekend, after which a contractor will start the demolition work.

Cllr Strang said the job would come at a ‘large cost’ to the harbour authority, but many other options had been investigated before the decision was made to break her up.

She was moved to her new position in an operation supervised by the harbourmaster, who said a number of would-be buyers had been interested in the vessel over the years, but had been put off by the costs.

Writing on social media, the Tor Bay Harbour Authority said: “Several options for disposal have been considered over the years since it has been in our possession, including plans for it to be removed and used as a floating disco in Poole, or in France, returned to fishing state and even as an artificial reef for diving, but the costs involved in each project have proved to be their downfall.

“When the Pirate Festival is done for this year the demolition crew from our friends at Gilpins Demolition will be on scene to remove her piece by piece, after blighting the harbour for years. Many thanks to Team Gilpin for their help in getting rid of abandoned and neglected boats.

“We won’t miss her.”