Fishing boat sunk on Lake Barkley

[GoBlue!]

So my father-in-law called yesterday, devastated. He lives on Lake Barkley, and his aluminum fishing boat got washed from his beach Saturday night. He took out a pontoon boat & found it, and as he was towing it back to shore, a wave came up, crashed over the fishing boat, and sunk it. He claims its in 40' of water.

The boat itself is quite old, and the real loss is probably his outboard & trolling motors. I'm certainly not trained to do a S&R of that sort of object, and frankly I don't know if he should even bother looking into it now that the outboard has been submerged for a couple of days.

Do you guys agree this is just a total loss, or should he look for someone who would be willing to attempt salvage?

Jim

 

[jbd]

It's still salvageable and the motor can still be good. It(the motor) just needs to be dried out, cleaned, lubed and restarted with a gentle break in. Essentially the same for the trolling motor.

It shouldn't be too hard to recover. How far is it from shore? Is there access to the shoreline to get it onto a trailer or could it be towed to a dock?

 

[GoBlue!]

I'm not sure how far it is from shore, but my in-laws have a pontoon boat that could easily tow the fishing boat to a dock or shore if raised. I suspect it's fairly close to shore, because the middle portion of Lake Barkley (as you may know) is a shipping channel, and very deep. Since he tells me it's only in 40' of water (of course that was a couple days ago, and I don't know what the current was like where he was when it sunk), I imagine he wasn't far from shore.

Of course, I've heard the lake is low vis typically (I've never dove it), and I'm not sure how accurately he could pinpoint the location it sunk. We're headed up to visit next weekend....perhaps I'll get more of the story.

In addition, I don't know who in the area would even do that sort of recovery.....

Jim

 

[tstormdiver]

I personally only have had limited S&R experience & am not real keen on lake diving. You might want to get a hold of Mirrocraft in the KPP. He's a public safety diver in Dunmore, KY. He might be able to get a group together to retrieve it. He's always looking for an excuse to dive & isn't picky about where. Just drop him a PM.

 

[jbd]

I haven't dove Lake Barkley but I have dove Kentucky Lake several times as well as several other lakes in Ky. I think it would be fun to attempt a recovery of the boat if it can be located. Most likely the boat would surface awash if the motor and some of the other heavy items were removed. There are lift bags made for the express purpose of recovering outboard motors.

What else can you tell us about the boat?

 

[GoBlue!]

I'll have to get more info for you. Prizer Point marina is the closest marina to the location, I'm sure. As for exact type of boat (it's was just a small, alumninum fishing boat probably 15 years old) & type of outboard, etc. I just don't know.

I'll be up there this weekend & will take a ride out and get a sense for how positive they are about the spot it went down. I could easily grab some GPS coordinates.

Jim

 

[jbd]

I had a small houseboat that sank and the motor was recovered/salvaged after nearly two weeks UW by some guy I never met. I recall him telling me that the freshwater soesn't hurt the motor like salt water will. He told me all he would have to do is what I noted above and it would be good to use again. I had no interest in the motor or the boat so I let him have it if he could recover it. Apparently they recovered the motor and sent the boat to the bottom.

 

[jbd]

BTW--I used to live in Cadiz many years ago.

 

[mirrocraft]

I haven't dove Lake Barkley but I have dove Kentucky Lake several times as well as several other lakes in Ky. I think it would be fun to attempt a recovery of the boat if it can be located. Most likely the boat would surface awash if the motor and some of the other heavy items were removed. There are lift bags made for the express purpose of recovering outboard motors.

What else can you tell us about the boat?

i just sent a pm about the sunken boat im a public safety diver can would have no problem recovering this boat if you have a pontoon that would work fine i have lift bag that will work fine for just the motor and for the boat the best thing to use is 55 plastic gallion drum with cum along i have never dove this lake as i have just moved to kentuck from fl. it is fun recovering this but at the same time you have to be very careful when lifting things it can get out of control and drag you up with it. its up to the man with the boat but if i go out and recover it i would have no problem with you coming and assisting since my wife is kind out of the water for a while just had a baby pm me and we can knock our heads togeither and work something out

 

[Bob3]

Well, did ya get the boat up yet?
The motors will be fine; depending on size they may be just hauled to the surface with a line.
As previously mentioned, once the motor/s is off the boat will probably come floating up.