JUST one side of a houseboat is still visible after it started to sink off the shores of Lake Macquarie around midnight on Monday.
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The Cruze 'N' Snooze houseboat has been a veteran of the lake for the past two decades, and owner John Leslie said the main goal is to salvage what he and his son can.
"All we know is it went down, we won't know anything until we raise her up," he said.
"It's a fairly extensive operation, it will be little steps - that's all I can say.
"We're doing what we can."
All we know is it went down, we won't know anything until we raise her up.
- John Leslie
The boat sank around midnight on Monday, with one occupant on board who managed to escape without injury.
Now lying on its side, Mr Leslie is hopeful he will be able to raise it once the appropriate investigations have taken place.
Working with his son, the pair are pulling all their resources together - using a remote controlled diving device to survey underneath and around the boat.
"... We don't need commercial divers, we'll use an RV to drag some lines underneath it and create flotation devices on it," he said.
"We just don't know why - we don't know the why but the how, and we won't know until we float it.
"That is an absolute positive [that it hasn't sunk entirely], so it means it has a whole lot of integrity - if it was sat hard on the bottom it would be much more of an issue."
Mr Leslie rents the houseboat out as a commercial business, and said losing the gear onboard is a tough pill to swallow.
"We've lost everything, there's $40,000 worth of electronics on board, but it is what it is," he said.
"It's lots of personal grief, but that's life.
"We hope within the next week she'll be floating again."
Mr Leslie has run the Cruze 'N' Snooze operation for the past 23 years.
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