NEAR POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — The ripple effects of Hurricane Irma are still being felt across South Florida, and for a towing company, that included some heavy lifting near Pompano Beach this weekend.
The destructive storm caused a 92-foot yacht to sink while docked at the Hillsboro Inlet and remained underwater for weeks. Saturday afternoon, it was time to get to work.
“The boat beat against the dock until there were holes in the boat, and then it took on water from there,” said Barney Huff with TowBoatU.S. “This whole area out here was probably inundated with waves, so it took on a bunch of water and subsequently sank. It’s been there now almost four weeks, since the day of the storm.”
The towing company used a 300-ton crane to pull the yacht upright and above water, allowing mechanics to determine if the high-priced vessel was salvageable.
“We surveyed the boat. A lot of it you can’t see. It’s laying on the bottom,” said Huff. “Once it’s stood upright and it comes to the surface, you’ll get to see really where all the damage is. There could be extensive patching, further than what we thought.”
This sinking situation is one of many crews have dealt with since the storm. “In the last three weeks we’ve done 50 jobs, many of them using a barge and a crane,” said Huff. “This happens to be the largest one in the last three or four weeks. We’ve done a bunch of them, from Miami all the way up to the Palm Beach County line.”
It took two days for crews to get the job done.
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