Last summer, the Sailing Center received a Catalina 26 that had been dismasted and scuffed up in hurricane Ian. It was a promising donation with a working Yanmar diesel engine and no major damage apart from the mangled mast. We had fitted the Catalina’s old standing rigging and spreaders to a donated mast and were getting close to having a working sailboat when hurricane Helene flooded our building in September 2024. We were just getting the mud out and drying out our stuff in October when hurricane Milton flooded the whole park much worse.
The floating dock escaped its piling rows and crashed into the Catalina as it was tossed up onto the dock pilings and a piling tore a large hole in the side of the boat, sinking it. In the picture at left you can see the aluminum ramp that provided access to the floating dock just hanging in the water and one piling next to the Catalina that looks a bit battered on top. It won the fight.
With limited access to the park and the need to clean our way to our salvage tools, it took a while to assemble the people and tools needed to raise the boat. First it was lashed to the dock with come-a-longs to hold it vertical. Then our fearless leader, Dennis, went in the water with a hand drill and a thin slab of fiberglass and covered the hole. We then draped a tarp over the patch and some sails and canvas over the companionway and cockpit hatch to help seal up the boat. We fired up a 2″ trash pump and a 1 1/2″ one and gradually got most of the water out of the boat. It was still sitting low because it was filled with mud so we removed mud with buckets and then pumped water into the boat with the small pump to make a stinky slurry, which was then pumped out with the large pump.
At the end of the day, the boat was moved around to the inside of the dock to allow crews who are working on the park to use the outside again. We’re still working on what will come next. Stay tuned!
