Sunken Boat Recovery in Miami-Dade County, Florida

Every raise follows the same order. Divers survey the hull first: where it sits, what the bottom is, whether fuel or oil is still aboard. Then they attach the lift bags to cleats or rigging points, and the bags bring the vessel toward the surface in stages. Once the gunwales clear, salvage pumps begin pumping the water out faster than it can return, and the boat floats on its own lines again. From there a towboat walks it to the nearest usable boat ramp or haul-out, and the trailer takes over.

Vessels 30ft plus in length, deep water, or hulls with structural damage need more: additional divers, float bag deployment under the hull, sometimes a crane at the seawall. That is specialized equipment we bring, not a problem you solve. Fuel, oil, and batteries come off the moment the boat is accessible, which keeps a recovery from turning into a cleanup and keeps you on the right side of environmental regulations.

A raised boat goes one of three ways. If the vessel still has value, we tow it to a repair yard and your insurance conversation continues; a salvaged boat with a sound hull is worth saving. If it does not, the hull goes to our yard for dismantling and recycling: motors, metals, and hardware come off for salvage, recyclable materials such as metal go to the recycler, and the fiberglass goes to a disposal facility, not a fence line. Boat junkyards take the parts worth keeping; the rest is handled as responsible disposal under the same rules we run on dry land.

The honest version most owners need to hear: a boat that spent a week underwater is usually a disposal job, not a repair job. We tell you which one yours is from the first photos, before you spend money raising a hull that is headed to the recycler either way.