Need advice for raising a half-sunken boat

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Where do you find them that cheap? Ive priced 1000 pounders with lifting straps and air fittings complete at $1300 a piece...
 
I once watched a company raise a cabin cruiser that sank in about 10 feet of water in the local marina. with the docks and other boats around they didn't have much room to manuever a crane or use any large lift bags due to the size of the slip it was in so they took a bunch of childrens beach balls (the plastic inflatable ones) of various sizes and the diver inflated them inside the cabin and the motor compt. the balls added some bouyancy but most of all they displaced the water from inside the cabin so when the sides got just above the water line the pumps didn't have that much to pump out, took about 25 beach balls and one AL80 with a lp hose and a shop inflator to fill the whole cabin and engine room. And since it was only going about 7 feet to the surface they didn't worry about overexpansion from the pressure change.
I'd figure if you can get a few of those cramed into the cabin and in the rear of your boat that will make it a little easier to lift. A decent size pump should help also. The 8000 gpm pump you have is a little small at only about 130gpm. See if you can rent a larger pump, some where in the size of 750gpm would serve you better. You'll need to overcome the water leaking into the boat from the small cracks and 130gpm just isn't going to cut it.

good luck

Hey blacknet, when I tried to download the USN salvage manual it said the file werecorrupted or something and it couldn't be fixed. any ideas?
 
nyresq,

I have been doing some updates/additions to my site so you may want to try again, I just tested the download and the file and both seem ok.

Ed
 
Wow, lots of information, thanks to all of you.
Here are some replies:
1- The buttom is soft mud.
2- I got the boat at very low cost, and relied on my home owner's insurance to cover it, and I am still waiting for them to respond. I didn't buy insurance out of laziness and not realizing that the boat itself may be cheap, but getting it out of water certainly is not.

-----------------------
And some questions:

3- The boat has been in brackish water for a couple of months now. Do you think the engine is worth salvaging, or has it rusted already?

4- There was a suggestion about filling the boat with beach balls. I have read in other places that filling inside the cabin with inflatable objects (such as inner tubes) could cause the cabin top to pop-off the boat. How do these two add up?

5- How about this idea: Can I anchor a come-along type winch to a pilon, pass a wide strap under the boat, and raise it slowly while pumping it? I know that a boat full of water is very heavy, but so long as the boat is in the water, the only weight I am lifting is that of the boat. As it comes up inch by inch the water starts to get out of the same holes where it got in, until we get to a point where water is trapped in, and that point the pump starts to kick in. So the weight that the winch and the pilon need to withstand is partial weight of the boat (some of the boat's weight is on the pier). Note that there will be a 45 degree angle push on the pilon.
5-1 Can the pilon withstand the horizontal push?
5-2 Is there equipment that can do this?

6- I attached a picture to the original post. Did it show?

Thanks for all the advice.

Masoud
 
You're right about the cabin coming off, they're not attached well enough to lift a boat.
Stuffing a waterbed matress under the deck may be a workable option, they work great on airplanes.
All you need is to get the gunnels above water so the pumps can do their job. (follow recommendations about higher capicity pumps)
You can pick up those little Homelite (2" dia hoses) jobbies for about $200; they move a respectable amount of water for being a little critter
The engine is at least worth taking a look at; flush profusely with fresh water & drain. Your electrical on it may have eaten itself up if there was any power attached.
Where are you at?
 
Get some heavy duty garbage bags and fill the stern lazerrets with them if you have space in the stern. They will fill in the void nicely and are cheap. Just do not over fill and use several bags. I brought up a 24 ft boat from 37 ft in a lake. After I took alot of rocks out of the cabin. It was a insurance job I guess no one wanted to buy it so it was sold to the insurance co.
 
Depending on the size the "small leaks" you can purchase an epoxy putty from someplace like Boater's World or Boats US. Obviously the more leaks you plug, the better chance your bilge pump has of getting the water out. Once out of the water you can seal them up even better with a marine type silicone. Good luck on the motor......you'll need it.
 

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