Raising a 23 ft Rinker 232 in Golden Glades, FL

Nobody in the marina office could say how long the 23 ft Rinker 232 cuddy cabin had been filling. Its gelcoat was crazed like a road map, and one afternoon it sat deck awash in its slip with the bow pointing up, boats packed tight on both sides.

The office wanted the slip cleared before the weekend, and there was a fuel sheen to think about. Before we lifted anything, the crew laid sorbent boom around the hull and ran two pumps from the stern. Water dropped an inch at a time while a diver checked the hull for a hole.

This sunken boat recovery took four hours. The bilge had simply let go through a bad hose fitting. We refloated her, ran a tow line to the hoist at the marina, and took her up the road past Country Club to a repair yard. Salvage was real on this one. Good hull, bad hose.