Wreck of Sunken Cabin Cruiser Towed to Oyster Bay

The listing wreck of the Kandi Won was towed intact to a marina in Oyster Bay Wednesday afternoon where authorities will hoist it from the water and begin to examine the doomed pleasure craft.

With helicopters flying above Oyster Bay and onlookers gawking from the shore, a parade of police marine units towed the vessel inland near the Theodore Roosevelt Marina at about 5 p.m.

The vessel, listing badly to starboard but its flying bridge and antenae intact, was dragged into the nearby Sewanhaka Yacht Club. There, it will be hoisted to dry dock by use of a special crane.

Police will then transport the wreck by a tractor-trailer to a Nassau Police crime lab on the South Shore.

Police spokesmen said the boat will be examined for clues into what caused it to capsize and sink in the darkness July 4, just after the end of an annual fireworks display on the water. The process could take a week or more.

Authorities have said 27 people were aboard the vessel when it Three The other 24 survived.

Earlier Wednesday, a team of experts from the FBI managed to inflate flotation balls beneath the sunken Kandi Won, the 34-foot Silverton cabin cruiser. The dive teams had been hampered by poor visibility 60 feet beneath Oyster Bay.

The wreck had been lying on a sandbar that kicked up underwater clouds of dust each time a diver stepped on the sea bed. 

The task wasn't easy.

First, water inside the vessel had to be pumped out, making the boat more buoyant.

The search and recovery efforts began Monday when the FBI was called in to assist in the project. Divers spent seven hours at the site on Tuesday, but could not raise the wreck.

The cause of the wreck remains under investigation. The meticulous efforts to raise the boat are designed to preserve any evidence the doomed pleasure craft may yield.