BAJA Salvage. SAD!

[harbormaster]

What a busy couple of days...

Here is a link to the salvage operation I was helping on for the last day or so. Special Thanks to Keith Kreider (Krakmeup) for the lodging last night on "Mental Floss"

http://www.seaquestmarine.net/gallery/bajasalvage.html

Feel free to ask questions.

[HyperDonzi]

What a horrible sight. Those are beautiful boats...Of course I am a bit biased wink

[JimG]

He was definitely "Big Daddy" in the Clear Lake area. Love him or hate him, EVERYONE knows "Livin' Extra Large" and "Livin' Extra Fast".

His body has not been recovered...

[HyperDonzi]

http://tamug.tamu.edu/~egk9566/wreck.htm

Pics

[boldts]

Obviously a very sad time for those who knew the owner of this piece of machinery. May God Rest Their Souls.

As for the salvage, thank-you for the insight on how the process is done. So, which 3 22 owners are looking at getting together to buy the engines? Don't know, but 2 days under salt water may not make them worth the trouble. Any thoughts?

[oldLenny]

Scot, "Sea Quest", is that the fella that Gerry and I were with getting that sailboat? out of GA Bay when we were there?

Those 525's would certainly perc up the 18...and the ITS Bravo XR's are an expensive piece. Keep us posted on the "auction".

How big was the tug and how did it fair?

And, why did the salvage/crane operator use a "choke" on the slings and not a spreader bar and a basket configuration? Any boat will break in half using slings like that. It needed a cradle configuration...

[harbormaster]

Lenny. Yes It was my Buddy Joel's company. We used a choker because the deck was totally broken up by a guy who tried to make off with the wreck.

The wreck was stuck because it was imbedded about 8 feet into the mud. The Divers could not get a sling under the hull. There was alot of wiring cables and debris around the wreck with NO visibility. The divers were concerned about getting tangled up under water.

And since the hull was a total loss there was no reason not to use the slip configuration. Our motivation was to get the engines and out drives out of the water as soon as possible.
AND NO not any boat would break in half. This boat broke cleanly at the stringer where BAJA did not even have a scarf joint. I will post a photo.
It is pretty surprising!

The tug sustained little or no damage.

[oldLenny]

What are the plans for the 525's and ITS drives?

[McGary911]

Guess who turned up! And he wasn't floating in Galveston Bay, either.....

Believed dead after boat accident, businessman now in jail
01:00 PM CST on Saturday, January 10, 2004 Doug Miller / 11 News He was believed to be dead, but a man who’s been missing for months after his boat crashed off Kemah is very much alive and is now in jail in Weatherford, Texas. Flamboyant League City businessman Mike Nixon, a hard-partying regular at Clear Lake nightclubs, had a very hard Friday night. He spent the evening under interrogation after he was arrested at a home in Weatherford. FBI agents were looking for Mike Nixon, but they weren’t alone. So were a lot of his creditors, entangled in a multi-million dollar mystery. The mystery started on the waters of the Houston Ship Channel with an accident that raised a lot of questions. Mike Nixon’s boat crashed into a barge last August. Afterwards, there wasn’t much left of the boat and there was no trace of Nixon. Nixon had just been sued for allegedly reneging on a $4 million line of credit and sources say he might have taken out two personal loans for $500,000 each. Several creditors required life insurance as a condition of doing business, at least five million. All told, depending on whom you talk to, $10 to $12 million may have been on the line when Nixon disappeared. Friday, more than four months after that boat accident, the law caught up with Mike Nixon. Houston private investigator, Clark Dickenscheidt, got the credit for running down the leads that led to Nixon’s arrest. He told the Galveston Daily News that a number of banks have provided the FBI with extensive documentation indicating Nixon took out millions of dollars in loans using cranes from his business as collateral. And Friday night, law enforcement officials in Parker County said they’ve heard the case may involve as much as $40 million. Details on this story are brought to you through our partnership with the Galveston County Daily News.

[Digger]

what a shame.

[Fish boy]

Another version...

A flamboyant Clear Lake businessman who investigators said faked his death in a Houston Ship Channel boating collision last year was arrested near Forth Worth on Friday and charged with fraud.

Larry Michael Nixon, 54, who was well-known for his love of fast boats and parties, apparently had not shed his taste for the high life. He was arrested while living in the guesthouse on a gated estate of several acres just west of Weatherford in Parker County.

Nixon disappeared after his 40-foot speedboat -- the "Living Extra Fast" -- collided with a barge in the Ship Channel in August. The Coast Guard searched for his body for several days, but later called off the effort.

Investigators said the collision came just after Nixon defaulted on a $4 million loan.

Nixon was arrested on a felony fraud warrant from West Virginia, said Lowell Moss, a spokesman for the Parker County Sheriff's Office.

Details on what prompted the charge were not available. But days after the Aug. 27 boating accident, Minnwest Bank Central of Montevideo, Minn., filed suit against Nixon and his company, Delta Crane. The suit alleges Nixon entered into an agreement with the bank Feb. 25 providing him with a $4 million line of credit.

The bank gave Nixon a notice of default 22 days before the boat collision and demanded payment.

Although Nixon lived a flamboyant life- style, Parker County sheriff's officials said he seemed nothing like that when he was arrested Friday.

"He's pretty docile," Moss said Saturday. "He looks like an old country boy."

Nixon showed no surprise when sheriff's deputies showed up at his door, Moss said, and he surrendered without a fight -- even giving officers his real name.

Acting on a tip from the FBI office in Dallas and following up on surveillance, Parker County sheriff's deputies went to the gated property off Interstate 20 around 3 p.m. Friday.

Nixon was alone in the guesthouse where he had been living, investigators said. He had been allowed to stay at the guesthouse, but it was unknown whether the owners knew his identity, Moss said.

Investigators were suspicious about the boat crash from the start, according to Kemah Police Chief Roy Owen.

Owen said the crash appeared suspicious because the position of the controls and damage to the boat led investigators to believe there was no driver on board when it crashed. It appeared the boat had been abandoned after being set up to continue forward, he said.

Although local investigators were not shocked that Nixon turned up alive, they were surprised he turned up so close to home.

"Initially, we thought he probably went to South America," said Owen, whose agency initially investigated the boating collision. Nixon had expressed a particular interest in Belize, Owen said.

"Oftentimes, someone will start spreading stories of their interest in certain areas just to throw people off," Owen said.

Deputies found significant amounts of what they believe are steroids in Nixon's guesthouse Friday, so he also has been charged with possession of a controlled substance, Moss said.

Deputies also allege Nixon had obtained fake birth certificates and identification over the Internet, and had obtained credit and opened a bank account with that false ID. Nixon is accused of purchasing a 2003 or 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe on credit obtained under the false name, Moss said, and may be charged with possession of fraudulent government documents Monday.

[chucknoonan]

Unf!@#ingbelievable!
The pics and the story.