Jupiter Farms, FL: 22 ft Sun Tracker Party Barge 22 Off the Bottom in One Morning

The 22 ft Sun Tracker Party Barge 22 pontoon had deck boards gone spongy and a rail bent in two places. It sat on a mooring, then slowly settled by the stern with the bow pointing up as the logs took on water.

A rotten deck cannot take a strap. Anything we tied to the deck would pull through, so the crew placed lift bags directly under the cross members and pulled the logs up from below. The rail stayed bent, and we left it alone. It was never going to matter again.

This sunken boat removal took a little over two hours. We drained the logs on the water, moved the barge by tow to the ramp, and loaded it on our trailer. Salvage meant only the aluminum, and a scrapyard run toward Boca Raton is long, so the crew dropped the frame at our nearest yard, where the barge was dismantled and the metal recycled.