Wreck Free Fal and Helford

We are a forum of people and organisations concerned about the problem of abandoned boats on the Fal and Helford

The problem

What happens to boats at the end of their lives? Cars go to the scrapyard and get recycled into new cars. Boats find a corner of a creek to rot away, leaking oil, diesel, toxic paints and microplastics into the ocean.

The majority of abandoned boats are from the 70’s and 80’s. Boats have got bigger and production volumes have increased since then so the scale of the problem is only going to grow.

There are over 4,500 moorings on the Fal Estuary. That’s probably over 30,000 tonnes of mostly GRP boats which at some point will reach the end of their lives.

What are we doing?

Wreck Map and Database

We have made a Fal and Helford wreck map and database to raise awareness, quantify the problem and locate and prioritise the wrecks that need dealing with.*

Add a wreck

Report a wreck

*Wreck Free Fal and Helford does not have any powers to remove abandoned boats. The information will be shared with the relevant authorities for the area. The Wreck Map is 'crowd sourced' and shows boats which appear to be abandoned. If your boat has been wrongly identified as abandoned please get in touch.