FloridaMerritt Island, Brevard County
Merritt Island, FL: 28 ft Bertram 28 Off the Bottom in One Morning
A 28 ft Bertram 28 sportfisher with twin dead engines and a soft cockpit sole slipped under at a public boat ramp, and when we got there, the gunwales were level with the water. Dead engines meant no bilge help at all. The owner had trusted the pumps and a battery that quit, and the tide did the rest.
The obstacle was the ramp itself. It stays busy, and a sunken sportfisher in the shallows blocks it for everyone. We had to work fast and in the open. We put lift bags at the gunwales, floated the boat off the concrete, and cleared the lane in under an hour of lifting, with a boat pump running the fuel-fouled bilge water through a filter bag.
The full sunken boat removal took about five hours, mostly cleanup. We towed the Bertram a short run to the trailer, and since the sole and engines were finished, it went to our yard for dismantling. The steel fittings and fuel tank were separated out for salvage and recycling.
Case summary
Illustrative example — a representative sunken boat recovery in Brevard County, not a record of a specific customer job. Photos are illustrative too.
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More boat removal jobs in Florida
Crews cover Brevard County: Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, and Palm Bay. When a boat goes under in Merritt Island or anywhere nearby, we schedule the recovery the same week once we have photos and a rough depth. Leaving a sunk hull alone seldom pays off, since fuel and oil spread and weather piles on, so a short call and a few photos are the quickest route to a spot on the crew calendar.