Recovery Dive - Anchor

[The Kraken]

You're right on top of it, Charlie!!!

The owner fouled his anchor, tried to reverse direction and pull the anchor free. All he suceeded in doing was breaking the anchor rope.

When we went back to the location we had to rely on dead reckoning and his best memory of where he was at the time. The area in which he lost his anchor is very close to a golf course and is generally refered to as "Cocktail Cove". This should give you some idea as to the actual proximity to the site of the loss.

There are thousands upon thousands of stumps and fallen trees in the area.
I had to establish a search pattern without using a locator/distance line to a down line due to the obstructions.

I set up a search pattern based on magnetic headings. 300' (approx) runs with 10' intervals (approx).

The actual recovery time was about 5 minutes after location.

For me it was just a GREAT opportunity to practice my search and recovery techniques and to recoup the cost of gas plus a little extra.($5 tank rental)

I don't plan to make a living doing this, but at the same time I don't want to infringe upon someone else's livelyhood by offering cut throat prices to recover items.

It's all about the diving.

 

[CBulla]

I'd like to make a living at it... talk about better than working in an office and office politics.

 

[Don Burke]

I'd like to throw this out for you guys to bat about a bit (geez, don't you just love that aliteration?) . . .

I did a recovery dive today to find a fellow's boat anchor that he lost after it had become fouled.

Found the anchor, valued at $300, and the owner was quite pleased. I charged him $50 for the dive.

The dive took about 1.5 hrs, 40' max depth and in relatively temperate water with a visibility of about 7'.

Was the amount I charged him too much, too little, or juuuuuuust right?

I tell people I charge $100 per hour in the water and then I bill for less time than I actually spend in the water. It works out to $60-$70 per hour in the water and generally about $40-$50 per hour overall.

$50 is a little light, but not overly so.

Heck, I helped a guy with a lost minnow pot at the marina this morning for free, although that was a magnet job from the bulkhead.

 

[keyshunter]

You're right on top of it, Charlie!!!

The owner fouled his anchor, tried to reverse direction and pull the anchor free. All he suceeded in doing was breaking the anchor rope.

When we went back to the location we had to rely on dead reckoning and his best memory of where he was at the time. The area in which he lost his anchor is very close to a golf course and is generally refered to as "Cocktail Cove". This should give you some idea as to the actual proximity to the site of the loss.

There are thousands upon thousands of stumps and fallen trees in the area.
I had to establish a search pattern without using a locator/distance line to a down line due to the obstructions.

I set up a search pattern based on magnetic headings. 300' (approx) runs with 10' intervals (approx).

The actual recovery time was about 5 minutes after location.

For me it was just a GREAT opportunity to practice my search and recovery techniques and to recoup the cost of gas plus a little extra.($5 tank rental)

I don't plan to make a living doing this, but at the same time I don't want to infringe upon someone else's livelyhood by offering cut throat prices to recover items.

It's all about the diving.

That sounds like tough one, all right. But it was a great exercise. By the way, I don't feel that $50 is at all excessive.

Weekend warrior boaters are often their own worst enemies. They get themselves into situations like the above and then tell you "I was off the radio tower in about 60 feet of water" thinking that a diver has some sort of magical location powers. People who run commercial boats will almost always give you exact lat-lons, or have thrown a marker on the location--often both. Something as simple as a bleach jug with a line wrapped around it with a weight on the other end of the line does not take up much room when carried on board, and is invaluable in marking the site of a lost item.

 

[Mako Mark]

I have done this kind of recovery before, both at the owners request, and the treasure hunting type of dive.

For the second type, I would dive along an underwater telephone cable that lots of boaties hooked and lost their anchors on. I would unhook them send up a line and have someone haul up the anchor from the surface.

Later I would clean the anchors up, then sell them out of the boot of the car down by the marina. I would generally charge about half the value of a new replacement anchor.

I think you could have easily asked him for $100- $150, but it depends how much of a buddy he is, and if you offset the extra money against future access to his boat, then it could be worth it.

 

[The Kraken]

Oooh !!! His boat was a GREAT platform from which to dive. The boarding ladder sucked, of course, because as one used it, it put the tank beneath the back and pulled me away from the boat, but there was a little diving platform about 1' off the water.

 

[The Kraken]

By the way, I started to put this in the "Services" forum, but there was so little there that I decided to come here.