Please Help me recovering mine boat...alll ideas are welcomed...

[gerardobrandao]

Hello guys...


Have been out of the "field" in the heli scene...but never miss boat meetings....It was a week before Christmas eve


I had 4 boats, and decide to only to have one boat, and one heli....
The crop of the cream of material was in this boat.. 6S2P 5100mah 60C lipo, DF 35 hull from offshorelectrics, of course , NEU1527 1.5D, schulze 32 202WK .... Hitec 7955TG rudder servo, spektrum receiver , and 2s receiver lipo battery...All sunk..

this was the first time boat sunk....past 2010



Boat was driving good hit a small have entered with the nose in the water, hatch broke as you can see in the pictures with the impact of the water, and the boat flooded and sunk...I was able to retrieve it because it was clean water and i could see it under the water at 14.5 foot depth...
I putted all the "swiming poll" noodle i could put inside, reinforced the original hatch with more stiff fiberglass and 2 more lays of Kevlar...(it is better then carbon fiber for impacts because don´t breaks so easily)

Putted 2 pins at the front of the hatch to enter in 2 holes in the hull for mechanical lock, and 2 more lock nuts at the back.....And told to mine self..This won´t happen again.......MINE HUGE MISTAKE.....


Past 18th of december there was friend boat meeting...and while i was running....same thing happened..boat catched some small wave, nosed in and..."goodbye"....

Place is here:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200671192257881233843.0004b52de79a3969999c7&msa=0&ll=38.678491,-8.625335&spn=0.003631,0.008256

..There was a guy that took a photo at the after the exact moment the boat entered the water and dived above water surface...




This happened on a Sunday
On Monday, 2 of mine friends went there with a fishing net with about 16 foot long and try to push the nest trough the bottom without success ..On Friday 2 of mine friends divers went there, but once again no success......Altough the water isn´t more then 6.5 foot deep, after 1 foot deep, we can´t see anything...Mine friends divers only could check by touching in the bottom of the lake since they couldn´t see!!!

Today, i took a day off and went there, with other friend.....new try, different approach....from shore , i was in a small "insuflated" boat, pushed a cable with 16.5 foot that had 3 point hooks, spaced by 5 inchs.......when the cable was extended, i started coming back to shore in a large diameter "arc" in order to try to catch the maximum possible area, but no success....


I don´t know what more to do has i have tried everything i could do.. but can´t sleep thinking the boat is underwater....
Should i try a different approach, or forget about it since the batteries are destroyed has it must be the speedcontroller..servo receiver..and even may be motor...after so much time underwater...no salt water ,pure mine water+rain water....
Can a device like a coin finder, be used to detect boat underwater?it is a sonar for fishing boats a reliable way to find where the boat rests?


Any opinion will be greatly appreciatted

[ejimbo4]

Big magnet..... I keep one with me just incase.

[RandyatBBY]

Get a scuba diver and a row boat and pull him around on a rope over ware you think it is. I have recovered every boat I sunk this way.

[gerardobrandao]

Get a scuba diver and a row boat and pull him around on a rope over ware you think it is. I have recovered every boat I sunk this way.

Hello Randy


The problem is that altough the water isn´t deep, divers can´t see nothing underwater....the deep is very muddy making the water very "cloudy"

[egneg]

A boat can travel quite a ways under water. I would try again with the cable/hooks over a larger area.

[Diegoboy]

I still say use a cast net

[RaceMechaniX]

Gerado, sorry to hear this has happened again. When DF26 sunk in a similar pond as you described, what eventually worked was a stiff aluminum rake used to spread mulch or gravel. It had a long pole and we dragged the bottom near where the boat sank for two days, eventually we hit boat and knocked it loose from the mud and it popped up just enough for me to grab it. Altough the speedo was dead and the batteries were completely flat I was able to save the motor, hull and hardware. The rake looked like this: http://www.stacksandstacks.com/24-in...sic-metal-rake

The boat will tend to drift underwater so make sure to spread your search.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Tyler

[gerardobrandao]

Gerado, sorry to hear this has happened again. When DF26 sunk in a similar pond as you described, what eventually worked was a stiff aluminum rake used to spread mulch or gravel. It had a long pole and we dragged the bottom near where the boat sank for two days, eventually we hit boat and knocked it loose from the mud and it popped up just enough for me to grab it. Altough the speedo was dead and the batteries were completely flat I was able to save the motor, hull and hardware. The rake looked like this: http://www.stacksandstacks.com/24-in...sic-metal-rake

The boat will tend to drift underwater so make sure to spread your search.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Tyler

Hello Tyler...Thank you for your input and "fingers crossed"

[JIM MARCUM]

Sorry about your loss. Here are my thoughts.

I've been a certified SCUBA diver since 1960, and was a professional diver for 5 years. If you don't succeed with the rake or hoop nets, this is what I have done in the past & it's worked well for me.

First, try to locate the spot it sank +- 100'. From a retrieval boat, drop a 10# plus lead/steel weight ( a divers weight belt works great) in the spot you think it is located, with a 100' long small dia rope attached to it, & a small bouy on the other end. Have one of your SCUBA diving friends dive down to the weight, hold onto the rope with one hand and start going around in increasingly larger circles from the weight about 3' at a time. If there is any visability, say 2-5 feet, the diver should stay off the bottom as much as visability allows to not stir up sediment & make it worse. If it really is 0' visability, as above, your diver can sweep the bottom with one hand - gloves recommended - again letting out about 2 1/2'-3' of rope on each pass.

This process takes time and a brave diver, but if the weight is within 100' (the length of the rope) from where your boat sank - he will find it. Again, no diver enjoys dragging a hand across the bottom with 0' visability. You never know what's down there - broken bottles, junk, huge catfish and other bad things - so wear gloves.

From your Google map pics it looks like the lake is placid so currents won't move your sunken boat. But, if like most lakes, there are any submerged trees/bushes or other large obsticles on the lake bottom that will snag the rope - this method won't work.

The big rake method is my second choice. Using the above weight - rope - increasing radius method, start circling the weight in a boat while dragging the rake along the bottom. Best done with 2 people - driver/rope handler & the rake man.

Unless your boat has a hell of alot more ferrous parts in it, even a super magnet would miss it.

If you don't like or want to try my methods, I suggest you boat out to where it sank - toss in a wreath & say goodbye to your lost friend. JIM

[gerardobrandao]

Sorry about your loss. Here are my thoughts.

I've been a certified SCUBA diver since 1960, and was a professional diver for 5 years. If you don't succeed with the rake or hoop nets, this is what I have done in the past & it's worked well for me.

First, try to locate the spot it sank +- 100'. From a retrieval boat, drop a 10# plus lead/steel weight ( a divers weight belt works great) in the spot you think it is located, with a 100' long small dia rope attached to it, & a small bouy on the other end. Have one of your SCUBA diving friends dive down to the weight, hold onto the rope with one hand and start going around in increasingly larger circles from the weight about 3' at a time. If there is any visability, say 2-5 feet, the diver should stay off the bottom as much as visability allows to not stir up sediment & make it worse. If it really is 0' visability, as above, your diver can sweep the bottom with one hand - gloves recommended - again letting out about 2 1/2'-3' of rope on each pass.

This process takes time and a brave diver, but if the weight is within 100' (the length of the rope) from where your boat sank - he will find it. Again, no diver enjoys dragging a hand across the bottom with 0' visability. You never know what's down there - broken bottles, junk, huge catfish and other bad things - so wear gloves.

From your Google map pics it looks like the lake is placid so currents won't move your sunken boat. But, if like most lakes, there are any submerged trees/bushes or other large obsticles on the lake bottom that will snag the rope - this method won't work.

The big rake method is my second choice. Using the above weight - rope - increasing radius method, start circling the weight in a boat while dragging the rake along the bottom. Best done with 2 people - driver/rope handler & the rake man.

Unless your boat has a hell of alot more ferous parts in it, even a super magnet would miss it.

If you don't like or want to try my methods, I suggest you boat out to where it sank - toss in a wreath & say goodbye to your lost friend. JIM

Hello Jim

Thank all of you, and you Jim for your comment and so valuable opinion .....


From the input of mine divers friends, the bottom of the lake is very regular, with almost none stone......When they launched the net, they didn´t even catch a small fish!...a bottle...a shoe nothing...seems it´s completely clean....visibility is less 5" inch..... i will talk to them.....Even a strong magnet, wont find the boat, it´s mine opinion, the only "ferrous" mettalic part is the motor, all the rest is aluminium and stainless steel(non ferrous)....And what about a coin finder...Could it work?


Best Regards and thank you ALL

[JIM MARCUM]

Clueless on the coin finder. The advantage to my increasing radius method is you will cover every square foot of the substrate in a 200' diameter circle. All you have to do is be within 100' of your boats actual resting place & the diver will find it. Again - good luck. JIM

[Make-a-Wake]

I recovered a boat with a fishing depthfinder. We went back and forth in an area that we had marked off with 4 bouys to eliminate floating out of the zone or scanning the same area over and over. The bottom was very smooth, only a few stumps which we saw, then we came upon an object that clearly looked like it could be a hull..........threw our draglines down with large treble hooks and got it by one of the watercooling tubes..............took two hours, but the fishfinder really helps. When you see an irregular marking, have some type of floats/poolnoodles attatched to fishing line and a good 4+ oz. sinker and drop it immediately on the spot where the "thing" was seen. Motor was still good and in fact all that was ruined were batts and speedo, its up and running now with all the same hardware/prop/motor etc.

I also lost one and had a diver find it in 2 minutes after i threw out a bouy where i thought it was and nailed the spot!!! I used a diver instead of the fishfinder that time cuz one wasnt available to me and i was by myself.

[steveo]

will a fish finder work? running back and forth with recovery boat

[Make-a-Wake]

Here's what the diver retrieved concerning my above post #12

It was under for a week and i salvaged and have re-used:

A $300 Castle 2028
$150 worth of hardware
$50 worth of drivline/prop
A $60 5s 40c lipo........yep, run it in my stiletto now!
$10 collet
Custom made motor mount

The motor and hardware will be salvagable............i let mine drip dry out of the mounting holes then sprayed WD40 in it and let it sit for 2 days..........

[Make-a-Wake]

will a fish finder work? running back and forth with recovery boat

Described how it worked for me in post right before yours