A 41-foot Hatteras yacht carrying three people began sinking in the Intracoastal Waterway after 10 a.m. Saturday. The boat was listing severely, but was still afloat around noon, with several people in and out of it, trying to salvage it. No one was injured.
The boat, the “Lee-C,” registered in Fort Lauderdale, is believed to have struck a reef about 100 yards north of mile marker 22 in the Intracoastal. That’s parallel to South 27th Street in Flagler Beach. That area of the Intracoastal, on the western side, is entirely uninhabited. On the eastern side, it is flanked by a few homes and boat ramps, just north of Gamble Rogers State Park.
Luckily for the boat owner, one of those homes–immediately across from where the boat was listing–belongs to Dirk Visintin, owner of Flagler Beach-based Nautilus Marine Construction, a builder of boathouses, docks and seawalls, also equipped to assist in boat rescues: Visintin was preparing to take a boat to the yacht, with a water pump.
The Flagler Beach Fire Department’s Boat 11 responded to the wreck, though it’s not clear how many of the people on board it pulled out. Flagler County Fire Rescue’s Rescue 41 was standing by briefly, but was not needed. A Flagler Beach police officer and a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy paddled to the boat in separate kayaks to offer assistance.
The Coast Guard was informed of the wreck, but was not expected to make it there: the area where the boat was sinking is considered a dead zone for the Coast Guard, because it cannot access it in less than three hours from either {once Inlet or Jacksonville. It does not have a station near the Matanzas inlet.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was also informed, but was not at the scene. Private boaters made their way to the boat periodically, either to look or to provide assistance.
Hatteras boats of that size are typically chartered for sport fishing.
Later in the day, Visintin provided this update: ” I was able to get the water pumped put of the boat and it floated up to the surface. After it was surfaced Tow Boat US towed it to Daytona Beach to Aqua Marina.”
rich says
What were the cops going to do with kayak’s?
Tax Payer says
If you were on a sinking boat would rather see the cops standing on the bank looking at you or trying to help you even though they are using kayaks. Why is it a business can burn to the ground with three different fire depts on scene and they did a great job, but you have police officers trying to help and they get criticized? As I always said if you want to be loved be a fireman if you want to be hated be a policeman.
Rick Belhumeur says
That would be four fire departments… Flagler Beach, Flagler County, Palm Coast and Bunnell.
concerned citizen says
Well sir, if you were there you would have seen both of the the officers get off of their kayak’s,place the people that were on the sinking vessel on the kayak’s and push them to a nearby dock.
NortonSmitty says
Paddle.
John Boy says
They were going to tow the boat back to Ft. Lauderdale, they were on OT, adding to their pensionable earnings.
palm coast resident says
Great to know that people really do help people in need! Read this article and was happy to find out everyone was ok due to the quick response of Dirk Visintin and the police. By the way, if you ever need any dock work, contact them at Nautilus Marine Construction. They do fantastic work and are always professional. Funniest guys I ever met!
Art says
That is a 41, not a 46.
John says
none of you know what happened or anything about the boat but who was there and who helped art you know what your talking about hi by the way. and it’s a 41 not a 46 I don’t know who said that it was a 46 but it’s a 41 Ft Hatteras and we were not pulled from the boat and it wasn’t three of us that were taken from the boat just 2 even though there was 3 of us but we had jeff coming to try to help us and he did we returned to the boat with him mins after hitting the dock and asking the owner Dirk about his pump he had he said he’ll get it ready and bring it over we headed over with 3 pumps still running and 1 more on the way other than dirk’s. there were not 4 firedepartments in the water by us if they were they were no where near us and probably on land we had a local sheriff and a boat full of what was probably fire department and another boat either another sheriff or maybe the coast gaurd made it i was pretty busy getting water outta the boat to get it to float again and they just watched like it was a big show didn’t ask to assist or anything the 2 cops in the kayakes did there jobs. we worked on the boat for a week long at art’s house all day long till night till we got it running (glad to be back in Wisconsin outta that heat) but were coming back to get the boat fiberglass it put new props on it because we were told by a diver that we had dive down and check the boat out that everything was good to go but after the incident and getting the boat towed and pulled out of the water the following day the guys at the daytona marina said that the port side prop was missing for a long time and wasn’t recently missing and on the starboard side on one of the propeller’s a good chunk was missing from the one piece who ever wrote this you don’t know what your doing with the news basically you just wrote a false report ask the people on the boat what went on get your facts straight then write it down and post it. I already posted this on the facebook page im now reposting it on here you want the real thing or just what someone thought was the real thing?