Raising a 28 ft Carver 28 in Gladeview, FL

At the public ramp, the 28 ft Carver 28 aft cabin cruiser sat with its gunwales level with the water. The windows had leaked until the interior gave up, and one wet week finished what the owner had stopped watching.

Ramp users were launching around it, so the call came fast. The trouble was the concrete. You cannot drag a flooded cabin cruiser up a ramp without opening the stern like a tin can. The crew taped plywood over the windows, set four lift bags under the chine, and floated her level before anything moved.

That sunken boat recovery took most of a morning. We held her on a short tow line, winched her onto the truck at the top of the ramp, and ran her to our yard past Coral Terrace. With the interior gone and the stringers soft, she went to dismantling and recycling. Salvage stopped at the engine.