Abandoned, Vintage Chris Craft Boat Sinks At Lake Of The Ozarks [VIDEO]

by Nathan Bechtold
Sep 6, 2024
Sep 6, 2024 Updated May 21, 2026
2 min to read

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — A vintage boat was pulled out of Lake of the Ozarks on Aug. 28, after sinking at a dock on the 38 Mile Marker. The 26-foot 1964 Chris Craft Cavalier had sunk in shallow water after a hole in the hull — which had previously been plugged with a toilet wax ring and a rag — had finally overwhelmed the boat.

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Lake of the Ozarks area salvage company Service Pro Marine was on-site, along with personnel from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency. After Service Pro Marine owner Carl Payton explained to them that the owner of the boat had relinquished any claim to it, he hauled the boat to a nearby ramp at King’s Pointe Marina while the environmental teams removed containment booms from the water and bagged them.

Payton told LakeExpo the boat had been a floating home for Patrick Mcaulay. “Interesting guy,” Payton mused.

He said Mcaulay had been essentially homeless, owning the boat, a van (in which he is now living), a typewriter, and some odds and ends that still adorned the inside of the Chris Craft as Payton loaded it onto a trailer. Mcaulay, Payton said, had puttered from one restaurant or marina to the next, docking there until he was kicked off by the owner. Then he’d putter to the next one. On his typewriter, Mcaulay had authored and self-published a book: “The New American Dream, Or What’s Left Of It.”

He had the Chris Craft docked in a private dock slip when it finally sank, but at the time Mcaulay was living in his van. Payton says once Mcaulay was informed the boat was sinking, he abandoned it. He said he didn’t believe Mcaulay had any money to pay for a salvage operation.

Once pulled from the water, it was clear the boat’s plywood hull was in rough shape: in places, no-longer-sealed wood was showing signs of decay. Blob-like bryozoan colonies clung to the hull as the boat sat dripping on the ramp.

Payton did the work pro bono, saying he likes helping clean up the Lake. He said he’d get the boat’s title moved over to him, and either restore the boat if it could be saved, or scrap it for parts.

Service Pro Marine is the same company that also recovered and salvaged the “shipwrecked” boat that sat on the shore below The Lodge of Four Seasons for nearly a year, after running aground on a shallow rock outcropping just offshore.

Payton has worked in the diving and salvage business at the Lake since the 1990s, when he began working for Terry Hart of Hart Diving & Salvage. When Hart was ready to hang it up, Payton bought his business assets and now operates as Service Pro Marine. The company can be contacted at 573-388-1828.