Re: Deals on boats that sunk at dock?
I'll humbly submit it is possible to resurrect with a wet boat without breaking the bank.
We lost our SeaRay I/O at the dock in a bad storm when we weren't around and it probably sat for three days on the bottom before it was pulled out. (Actually, our neighbour thought it had been stolen because he knew we weren't home, popped over for a closer look and saw her below the surface...)
It took some time, muscle and two x fours to roll her over and a couple of fire pumps to get her floating. It was a mess. She dropped a side going down due to being tied to the dock and was hanging by her lines. The oil had run out of engine and saturated the upholstry, carpet, instruments and everything else that didn't either float away or sink. I can't imagine the local wildlife was terribly impressed either. Every time the phone rang that week I was expecting it to be the Ministry of Environment looking to collect a fine.
Once on a trailer and in the shop they got on it right away, doing three oil changes, draining and flushing the fuel tank and replacing the starter. That got it running and saved the motor til a proper estimate could be worked out for the insurance co. In the end the estimate offered by the marina to repair ran to $7K so the insurance co wrote it off (boat was ten years old at the time). The grocery list was a mile long and included about everything you could think of. All wiring, all instruments, all engine accessories, all controls, hydraulics, all upholstry, carpet, everything.
We took the cash but interestingly, the insurance co also gave us the boat back, which I didn't expect. I didn't want it but the marina was going to charge me $300 to crush it if I didn't get it off their property. I briefly considered parting out the motor and outdrive but decided the hassle factor wasn't worth it. I was telling the story to a buddy at work the next day who got real interested, offered to give me a thousand to cover salvage, storage, and marina work to date and he carted her off.
In the end just about the entire list of "needed repairs" was bs. All he did was was dissasemble, dry and clean all the instruments, replace the bilge blower, disassemble the seats to dry the foam and put them back together, shampoo the carpet gave her a tune up. After that she was good to go. Cost him I think less than $200 in materials and maybe 50 hours of his time and he got a fine boat out of it which he and his kids are still enjoying every weekend two years later. For my part I love the idea she's back on the surface with a new lease on life giving another family lots of good times.
Anyway, long-winded post but an example of how a sunk boat is not necessarily a lost cause and -- depending on the complexity of the craft and your skills -- potentially a real bargain.
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Some pics just after the salvage operation...Wish I had some after shots looking purdy again.
