Sunken Cabin Cruiser Recovery in Bee Ridge

This 23 ft Chris-Craft Cavalier had been parked so long it carried decades of barn dust and a cracked keel strip. A new owner dropped her in a slip to see what he had. The keel strip opened, and by morning the deck was awash with the bow just above the surface.

The owner was hoping to keep her, and that changed how we worked. We did not want to rip the cracked strip wider, so we passed wide straps beneath the hull and set lift bags along them. A rush would have split the keel. We held the hull a few inches under the surface until the cabin drained clean, and a boom stayed up because fuel was aboard.

Most of a morning. The tow went to a ramp near Palmer Ranch, and then the Cavalier went by trailer to a repair yard, because she was worth saving. Real salvage, not scrap, and a sunken boat recovery the owner can brag about.