Heavy Lift

One of the large boats that washed ashore in Hope Town was refloated a couple of days ago. It is a 46ft. trawler belonging to one of our club members. A barge with a large crane came into the harbor and docked as close as it could to the boat. Then all the debris had to be removed by a skidsteer so it could be accessed to patch up the holes in the hull below the waterline. Then the crane came off the barge and single point lifted this approximately 58,000 lb. boat, swinging it over the road and the seawall.

It then had to be blocked up so that the crane could move back onto the barge. The barge was repositioned so that the crane could pick the boat back up and reverse the whole entourage back out into deeper water to refloat the trawler. After it was lowered into the water, it was brought over to the dock with two skiffs and last we heard it was still floating. We presume that it will eventually make its way back to the States for repairs. This was a huge project that took all day, and unfortunately there are many more boats ashore like this throughout the Abacos. Thanks to Kim Kopp for the great photo!