| I visited my brother-in-law yesterday; he 's a fisherman in Chatham. A
couple of weeks ago the boat he was on sank, and was written off by the
insurance company as a total loss. Here's the info, for your
entertainment.
The boat is a fiberglass fishing boat about 45' long, with a small
cabin in the bow and a big cockpit in the back for handling the nets.
Normally they can get about 12000 pounds of fish in the hold, but on
this particular trip it was a day run and they had about 9000 pounds
in the cockpit. The weather was a bit heavy, and some water was coming
over the side and wasn't draining because the scuppers were clogged
with fish. A big wave came over the side, they rolled enough for the
fish to slide off the upper working area of the cockpit onto the deck
on the low side, which in combination with the water they had already
shipped caused the boat to roll all the way over and sink almost
instantly. The four crew luckily weren't caught in any of the equipment
and the lifeboat worked just fine; they were picked up by the Coast
Guard 45 minutes later.
The boat sank in about 210 feet of water. The insurance policy was for
$110,000 and the money went for a new boat. Apparently the estimate of
the value of the boat if it were brought up would be around $40,000
allowing for ruined and lost equipment. Because of the depth of the
water, it would cost about $40,000 just to go down and take a brief
look at it, not even allowing for any attempt at salvage. Therefore, it
was written off. The owner is hoping to grapple for some of the
nets--apparently he had 96 nets on board (each being, what, maybe 200
feet long?).
What is interesting to me is the expectation that so much stuff gets
ruined so quickly. The engine has been down there for two weeks--would
it really be totally wasted this quickly? And why can't they send down
one of those cool little robot submarines and hook up a line somewhere?
At this depth wouldn't the density of the water make a fiberglass boat
almost bouyant? If they could get it up to normal dive depth they could
send somebody down and hook up proper slings or whatever to get the
boat back up--would this really be that expensive?
I guess deep-water salvage is a lot more complicated than they let on
on the National Geographic "raise the Titanic"-type TV shows...
Doug.
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If he has the approximate location, a few hooks and some line, why
not try dragging back and forth? Nets should snag on anything, right?
Just hope the hook doesn't grab the whole boat!
As far as divers, submersibles, etc., $110K probably would not last
long. The boating we do for free is mighty `spensive for a pro! Plus,
if you happen to get anything really good, I betcha the state will tax
you a sizeable chunk.
Fun to muse on, tho.
Keelscrubber Scott
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