Boat Removal in Cayo Costa, FL — Vessels 28ft and Over

Cayo Costa removal facts

Barrier-island access.

Every vehicle we bring here crosses a bridge or a causeway, and that is the governing constraint on the whole job. Bridge weight postings, lane widths and turn radii determine what size crane can physically reach the vessel, and over-dimensional movements off the island are daylight-restricted. On island jobs we frequently find that taking the boat out by water to a mainland yard is both faster and cheaper than trying to bring heavy equipment across.

Removing a large vessel in Lee County

Cayo Costa sits within the Lee County removal area, working San Carlos Bay, the Caloosahatchee River, Pine Island Sound, Estero Bay and Matlacha Pass. Lee County has the largest canal system in the world at Cape Coral, a working commercial waterfront at Fort Myers, an island population from Pine Island out to Boca Grande, and the deepest post-hurricane vessel backlog in the state. The Caloosahatchee gives real deep-water access inland as far as the locks, which means genuinely large vessels turn up a long way from the Gulf.

The local constraint. Cape Coral's canal network is the specific challenge: hundreds of miles of canal, many segments cut off from open water by fixed bridges with limited clearance. A boat can be on the water and still be unable to leave by water. Establishing which bridges are between the vessel and San Carlos Bay is the first question on any Cape Coral job.

Getting a boat out of Cayo Costa by water

The closest navigable Gulf access to Cayo Costa is Boca Grande Pass, approximately 3.0 miles away. On any in-water job that distance is the first thing we calculate, because it determines whether the vessel can be towed to a yard with adequate lift capacity on a single tide, whether a pump crew has to ride the tow, and whether fixed bridge clearance rules out a tall rig entirely.

At roughly 3.0 miles from Boca Grande Pass, an in-water tow to a lift is normally the straightforward route here, and short transits mean a single tide is usually enough even on a hull that needs pumps running the whole way. At 77 miles from St. Petersburg this is a longer mobilisation, so we prefer to batch it with other work in the area where the timeline allows — ask about that when you call, it can move the number.

Boat removal rates in Cayo Costa

Indicative rates. Every removal is quoted individually after an on-site assessment - the figures below are a guide, not a fixed price.

What moves your number in Cayo Costa specifically is whether the vessel floats, what she displaces rather than what she measures, whether equipment can physically reach her given the barrier-island access conditions described above, and the 3.0-mile run to Boca Grande Pass if she moves by water — towing is billed hourly, so that distance goes straight onto the estimate. See the full rate card for worked examples, what the per-foot rate covers, and what is billed separately.

Complex situations in Cayo Costa: for a sunken, grounded or storm-damaged vessel we can have a crew on site to assess the same day you ask for a price. There is no charge for the visit, and on jobs like these a photograph is not enough to quote from honestly.

Questions about Cayo Costa

Nearby communities we cover

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