The 77-foot sunken fishing vessel Judy K — covered in mud, algae and barnacles — was floated Tuesday for the first time in eight months at Pier 16 thanks to the Army’s 7th Engineer Dive Detachment taking on the recovery as training.

“We’re just totally amazed and thankful for the work the Army has given us through this training exercise,” Darrell Young, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation Harbors Division, said Wednesday. “For us, it shows a win-win capability of state and federal working together.”

Next up, the state plans to render the Judy K a demolished and bad bureaucratic memory.

The state saved the $130,000 to $190,000 in bid float proposals — which it deemed too high before turning to the Army — but plans to spend more than $100,000 to have the vessel moved by crane, either to a barge or Piers 19 and 20, where it will be broken up and carted off for disposal, Young said.

“It’s so far gone,” Young said of the Fiberglas-and-wood-hulled boat, which was built in 1979. The hope is to move it by the end of the week, he said.

The dive detachment performed an initial examination of the Judy K over two days in late June and early July. Divers went back into the murky water on Sept. 9, and have been working on the vessel since.

“We’re trying to stay as organic as possible to the Department of Defense’s inventory to salvage this,” said Capt. Troy Davidson, the detachment commander. The unit is part of the 130th Engineer Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command.

“It would have been significantly easier if we just had a crane on the side to help us, but if we use techniques that we’re going to use in a war zone, or (other operations), I try to not utilize outside influence so the training value is greater,” he said.

Eighteen members of the unit worked on the Judy K this time around, he said. About all they found inside was muck and a framed print of Jesus walking on water.

Davidson said the detachment noncommissioned officer in charge, Staff Sgt. David Craig, used some innovative approaches — including sealing off the superstructure with neoprene and plywood panels so water could be pumped out.

Prior to that, the Army divers used lift bags to bring up portions of the fishing boat with straps that themselves weighed 150 to 200 pounds and had to be threaded underneath the sunken vessel.

“It’s a pretty big job,” said Craig, who was born and raised in Honolulu and graduated from Kaiser High School in 2004. It was the first time he had designed a salvage as large as the 83-ton vessel.

“To most people it doesn’t seem that large, but each salvage is different. It’s a difficult monster each time, and it changes in the middle while you are trying to do it,” Craig said.

After the Judy K sank on Jan. 12, it spilled an estimated 150 gallons of diesel fuel into Honolulu Harbor. The owner was believed to be dead, so the state was left to deal with the sunken boat.

Two separate commercial bid solicitations to float the boat from 10 to 15 feet of water came in between $130,000 and $190,000.

The Army said in June it was told by the state that the Judy K had been abandoned eight years earlier, but some said it was even longer than that, with the vessel used as a fisherm en’s drinking and gambling hangout.

Young said that “it reminds us that we need to be diligent on who is in our harbor and precisely who we have moored where.” He added that he hopes steps taken since the Judy K problems will “alleviate this type of concern.”

That has included cracking down on vessels not in compliance and delinquent on rent in Honolulu Harbor, he said.

“I think we started with maybe a dozen and I think we’re down to about three” that are not in compliance, Young said.

A Healy Tibbitts Builders crane being used on the construction of a new nearby Pier 15 would be moved temporarily to lift the Judy K, and then moved back, Young said.

Craig said it was nice to see the Judy K floating again, which “has been the bane of my existence” taking up free time and weekends and a lot of behind-the-scenes effort to work with the state and secure equipment including a truck, big pumps and generators.

But “being a kid who grew up here, it’s nice to give back,” he said.