Deep South Divers
Contributor
Here's the truth about underwater salvage:
A general rule of thumb to bid for a salvage job is either 10% of the replacement value of the item or $110/ft for boats. For example, if an $80k boat is three years old and now can be had on the used market for $50k and it sinks, a good rule of thumb is that for $5000, we will refloat it and haul it out. If it's a 42-footer and several years old and worth $20k, we would charge between $4500 and $5k to refloat and haul out. If the item is a car worth $16k, the price should be about $1600 to retrieve it and have it out of the water and on a wrecker... Plus or minus for difficulty of job (might be more if we have to also boom a fuel slick and it's 45* and raining). When the retrieval process is dramatically simpler (like with an expensive ring or watch), the price would be much lower. For example, I once got an emergency call to retrieve a set of car keys in 18 feet of water. The job was an "emergency" job (had to happen NOW), and I got pulled off of another job to do it. The bottom was full of old dock parts and in zero visibility, so finding them took almost two hours. I charged $175 for the job. I should have charged more because of the circumstances (emergency, pulling me off of another job, bottom topography), but if I had, the guy probably would have simply replaced everything himself and opted not to have them retrieved... That is, I would have lost the job.
...So in professional search and recovery, a flat 10% of value is a dramatic oversimplification of reality, but that's too complicated to explain to the average viewer. Each job must be bid with the knowlege of expected time spent, proper negotiations, and a knowlege of how to price such that the client can afford it and even think, "Wow, that's a lot of money," but still choose to have the item found. If the client does not balk, you've underbid. If the client says no, you've overbid... But you still have to cover all of your expenses and find a profit margin within those confines. It's always best to bid very high first, 'cause you can always find excuses to come down... It doesn't happen the other way.
In reality, bidding a job like this would take an awareness of worth, what the client would be willing and able to pay, expected time and other expenses, etc... All of which come from experience. I have both underbid and overbid jobs many times in the past, so making the mistakes is the only way to really figure out what things are worth. The difficult part of this business - as with any labor-only business - is learning quickly enough that you don't go out of business before you figure it out.
On the other hand, consider expenses for gear, experience, training, insurance, payroll, boat, fuel, compressor, etc... If we aren't making at least a few hundred bucks on every job, then we don't even break even.
If the item is not found and retrieved, by the way, there is no charge. The client only pays if they get their item back. That serves as motivation for the client that he has no obligation until they have their coveted item back in their hands.
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