PLAN A
I don't know anyone who has recovered a sunken boat before, the only reference I have is once I saw it done on the discovery channel. They used divers to locate the holes in the boat, patch them up, air bags to raise the boat to the surface, then pump the water out. The way the boat sat, at high tide the water was over the coaming and some friends were speculating that the water would just rush in at the same rate the pump would lift it out. Also there was a hatch on the bow deck, and we know for a fact that hatch will leak like a sieve around the edges. Worst case scenario, we get down there and try to pump it out, if it doesn't work out, we can just leave it there and all we have lost is our time and the cost of the pump rental.
I went to Champion Equipment Rentals and picked up a gas powered pump.
They were out of the 2" pumps, but had a 3" one that they would rent me for the same price.
The 2" was rated at 138 gallons per minute, and I thought the guy said the 3" would do around 350 gallons per minute.
We got lucky, and the intake hose was the prefect length to go from the shore to inside the cabin, and we could run it without a discharge hose letting the water just run down the bank and back into the canal.
Incase the hose wouldn't reach, or incase we had to continually run the pump while we towed it to the boat ramp, I built a small plywood kayak to carry the pump. I didn't use the kayak, but wanted to build one anyway, and it only took $35 worth of materials and 2.5 hours to make.
Josh was able to borrow his neighbors canoe, it is floating here above the venture.
Bill's brother in law Jerry came to help, but was mostly interested in getting to see Bill fall in. :)
With the pump in the lowest part of the hull, Bill stood on the forward hatch to keep it closed and hopefully minimize the water flow thru it.
Lots of water coming out of that pump....
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