TowBoatUS San Diego Removes Cement Vessel From a Busy Huntington Beach.

Salvaging a sunken vessel in the open ocean is extremely challenging. A vessel sunk in the surf line even more difficult; salvaging a cement vessel in breaking surf makes for one of the toughest salvage situations. When the 32’ Ferro Cement Vessel grounded on the beach in Huntington Beach Vessel Assist Long Beach made a valiant effort to pull the stricken vessel into deep water.   The 11 ton full of water by the time a tow line was attached made the boat too heavy to budge with the twin diesel tow boat. Cement vessels are very stable heavy water vessels. But, with the massive weight for its size it has absolute zero bouncy. It was apparent that the fate of the grounded and sunk vessel was sealed. Vessel Assist San Diego was contracted to bring in its experienced beach extraction crew and heavy equipment to drag the vessel out of the water and chop up the vessel placing it in several dumpsters. After the Orange County permit to operate on the beach was delivered, Vessel Assist San Diego Shot into action. With an early morning start the Vessel Assist Crew Rigged a bridle of Plasma Tow line. The bridle was rigged and the heavy tow hawser was attached and positioned for the 6d Bulldozer to attempt to pull the grounded vessel out of the surf. The first objective was to get the vessel to the shoreline so additional bridles could be attached and the environmental hazards identified. The biggest problem with a cement vessel in pounding surf is, it buries itself with every breaking wave. With the boat filled up with sand from 5 days of torture the already heavy vessel was now three times its normal weight and buried in a hole. The powerful bulldozer’s motor was maxed out as the stricken vessel was pulled out of its self-made grave. Slowly but surely the bulldozer pulled and re positioned and pulled again until the vessel was out of the surf and on the shore line. After securing the fuel tank to insure it would not leak fuel the bulldozer was assisted by a Caterpillar C325 trek excavator. The skilled machinery operators worked the heavy vessel up a 10’ hill where the tideline ends on the heavily populated beach. The Vessel Assist San Diego salvage team had to re position the bridle several times to optimize the angle of pull to get the boat up the hill. Once on flat beach the two tanks like tractors dragged the vessel almost ½ mile to a staging area to final destruction. Soon after the fuel tank was drained and removed the giant excavator tore into the hull and placed it piece by piece into 4- 40 yard trash bins. The beach was sifted for the smallest of debris and the beach was cleared for the busy Labor Day weekend traffic of beachgoers.