Sunken Sailboat Recovery in Miami Gardens

Riding a mooring for a long time, a 26 ft Pearson 26 sailboat with deck core soft around every stanchion finally settled by the stern with the bow pointing up. Stern first is how a sailboat tends to go when water enters through the cockpit drains, and this one went slowly enough that nobody noticed until the bow angle gave it away.

The obstacle was the mooring. Cutting the pennant would have freed the boat to swing, and nothing was close enough to hold it. We kept the mooring attached, brought a work skiff alongside, and set lift bags under the stern first so it came up level. Once the cockpit cleared, a pump took the rest of the water out.

The sunken boat removal took about four hours on site. We towed it to the nearest ramp. Soft core all over the deck is expensive to fix, so the boat went to our yard for dismantling and recycling, with the keel pulled for salvage.