North Port, FL: 22 ft Sun Tracker Party Barge Gone in One Morning

A 22 ft Sun Tracker Party Barge 22 sat in a side canal in North Port with spongy deck boards and a bent rail, no trailer underneath it. The pontoon had been there long enough that the owner had stopped counting seasons. Water damage was deep. No title in the drawer, so we handled it per Florida salvage rules. The real problem wasn't the boat's condition. It was access. No trailer meant we couldn't winch it out the way we normally do. The canal banks were soft, and a standard crane setup would've sunk into the mud. We brought in a shallow-draft barge with a hydraulic lift, positioned it alongside the pontoon, and raised the hull carefully enough to keep the pontoon from twisting. The whole operation ran most of a morning, start to finish. Once it was loaded and secured, we hauled the 22 ft pontoon out to our North Port yard. Deck boards came off and went to recycling. The aluminum frame and pontoons went to the salvage processor. What couldn't be reused was disposed of responsibly. The owner got a document showing the boat was gone. The canal got its space back. Crews cover all of Sarasota County: Sarasota, Venice, South Venice, Fruitville, Palmer Ranch, Sarasota Springs. North Port sits right in the middle of our regular route, and we handle pickups same week most of the time. Seasonal storage moves keep us busy here year-round, especially when folks shift boats in and out before hurricane season or after the winter crowds thin out.