Boat Removal in Tampa, FL — Vessels 28ft and Over
Sailboats, motoryachts, sunken and derelict vessels removed from Tampa and Hillsborough County. Call 561-800-0744 for a free on-site assessment.
Tampa removal facts
Working-waterfront access.
This is a commercial marine area with real yard infrastructure, which usually works in your favour: lift capacity is close by, hardstand space exists, and the tow distance is short. The trade-off is that vessels here tend to be larger, older and heavier than the residential average, and commercial hulls carry more fuel, more oil and more hazardous material to abate before anything can be cut.
Removing a large vessel in Hillsborough County
Tampa sits within the Hillsborough County removal area, working Hillsborough Bay, the Alafia and Hillsborough rivers, and Tampa's port channels. Hillsborough is a deep-water commercial county with a large inland residential population. The removal work splits between genuinely large vessels around the port and the Alafia, and a very large volume of 28-40ft boats sitting on side yards, storage lots and blocks across Brandon, Riverview, Seffner, Valrico and the Plant City corridor - boats that have not been in the water in years and no longer have a trailer that will hold them.
The local constraint. Inland Hillsborough jobs are usually access jobs, not marine jobs. The boat is behind a fence, under a tree, on a collapsed trailer, on soft ground. That is a crane and ground-protection problem rather than a towing problem.
Getting a boat out of Tampa by water
The closest navigable Gulf access to Tampa is Clearwater Pass, approximately 22.8 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 22.8 miles from Clearwater Pass, a water route is a real transit rather than a short hop. On a marginal hull it is frequently cheaper and safer to lift the vessel where it sits and move it by road, even accounting for the over-dimensional permit. This is close-in work for our St. Petersburg crews.
Under 28 feet? Still call. Smaller boats are an easy job for the same crew and we take them. But if other haulers in Tampa have already declined your vessel because of its size, weight or condition, that is precisely what we built this company to handle.
What we remove in Tampa
Derelict & Abandoned Vessel Removal
For property owners, marinas, HOAs and local government dealing with a vessel nobody claims.
Read moreMarina & Boatyard Lien Vessel Removal
Trade terms for facilities carrying non-paying vessels on the hardstand or in a wet slip.
Read moreSteel, Aluminium & Ferro-Cement Hull Removal
Non-fibreglass hulls change the equipment, the disposal route and the economics entirely.
Read moreSunken & Partially Submerged Vessel Recovery
A boat on the bottom is a pollution event with a deadline, not just a disposal job.
Read moreHouseboat & Liveaboard Removal
Wide-beam, low-value, high-volume hulls that most haulers will not touch at any price.
Read moreMotoryacht & Sportfish Removal
High-displacement vessels up to 60 ft, where the lift - not the length - is the constraint.
Read moreAll ten vessel types and situations →
Boat removal rates in Tampa
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 Tampa specifically is whether the vessel floats, what she displaces rather than what she measures, whether equipment can physically reach her given the working-waterfront access conditions described above, and the 22.8-mile run to Clearwater 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 Tampa: 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 Tampa
What size boats do you remove in Tampa?
Any size, with vessels 28 feet and over our speciality. Our equipment, permits and yard relationships are built around the 28 to 60 foot range that other haulers in Tampa tend to decline - but a smaller boat is a straightforward job for the same crew and we are happy to take it.
How does a boat get out of Tampa by water?
The nearest navigable ocean or Gulf access to Tampa is Clearwater Pass, roughly 22.8 miles away. That transit distance, the controlling depth on the way, and any fixed bridges in between determine whether an in-water tow to a lift is practical or whether the vessel has to come out on a crane and leave by road.
What does boat removal cost in Tampa?
Removal is banded by length overall: $50-80 per foot up to 25 ft, $80-100 for 25-28 ft, $100-150 for 28-32 ft, $150-200 for 32-36 ft, and from $200 per foot over 36 ft. Full-keel and deep-draft vessels are billed at 1.3 times the applicable rate. On-water towing is $300 per hour, raising a sunken vessel $600-4,000 and refloating a grounding $600-2,000. These are indicative figures - the final quote depends on the circumstances of the particular vessel and follows a free on-site assessment.
How quickly can you get to Tampa?
Tampa is approximately 17 miles from our Tampa Bay & Southwest Florida dispatch point in St. Petersburg. Assessment visits are normally scheduled within a few business days; the removal itself depends on lift availability, permits and paperwork rather than on travel time.
Nearby communities we cover
All Hillsborough County locations · Full Florida service area
Get a quote for your boat in Tampa.
Send photos, a location and whatever paperwork exists. We will tell you what it takes to make it go away — and if there is a cheaper legal route than hiring us, we will tell you that too.