Boat Blows Docking [Schooner Wharf

KEY WEST — Something big crashed the party Saturday night at Schooner Wharf.

Patrons were enjoying the open-air arts and music festival when "the loudest crunch ever," according to one bystander, sounded, sending people running.

A 61-foot, 64-ton fiberglass sportfisher crashed into the dock at 7:25 p.m., smashing a pile, slightly damaging some boats and ripping up planks on the harbor boardwalk, according to witnesses.

No one was hurt in the incident, which is being investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard. Petty Officer John Zarr said the case was turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to investigate because the minor accident was in state waters.

Schooner America deckhand Adam Bell said the whole thing was "pretty freaky."

"We were getting tied up, ready to let the passengers on [for a Stargazer cruise], when we see this giant white boat flying in next to us by the PT boat and another wooden schooner [Compass Rose].

Witnesses said they saw the boat, named Bill Collector, heading toward the dock at about 5 to 6 knots. Sunny Andracchio, general manager of Schooner America, said there were 26 people waiting on the dock as the sportfisher quickly approached.

"Luckily, we hadn't let people board yet, because the dock moved under our feet," Bell said. "Me and [first mate] Sean Blaise started yelling at the people to run away.

"Then it smashed into the [piling], and it was the loudest crunch I ever heard. It was devastating — girls and guys screaming at each other, everyone running."

Capt. Carl Peachey, who runs sunset cruises on the boat Island Belle, also saw the crash.

"The boat came in real fast, and it was too wide to fit between the two boats [the PT and Compass Rose], and it just pushed those up, hit the smaller boat, snapped the piling and took planks out," he said. "It looked like it was going to ride right up. It was a miracle no one got hurt."

Another boat owner, Jerry Miller, said he heard the big crunch and ran out of the bar.

"I saw this big boat sticking up out of the dock; I couldn't believe no one got hurt."

Miller said he and other volunteers threw lines to the boat and helped hold it back from further damaging the dock.

Explanations from witnesses and those on the docks was that the Bill Collector was backing into a slip when it lost transmission power. No further details were available from the Coast Guard, and Harry W. Scott Jr. of Raleigh, N.C., who according to Coast Guard records available on the Internet is the vessel owner, could not be reached and was apparently not onboard at the time of the collision.

Vessel records show the boat is homeported in Hilton Head, S.C. Attempts to reach Scott by information located on Coast Guard records yielded only a voicemail message for Absolute Collection Service.

"I was upstairs at the bar," said Jim Smith, assistant dock master at City Marina. "If he hadn't hit that piling, he would've gone right into Schooner Wharf. It was scary. It's a huge boat. But they had tons of people down there [helping] and the police and rescue were there in a minute."

Andracchio said the sportfisher's captain did a pretty good job.

"I'd say it was about 80 percent mechanical failure and 20 percent human error," he said. "The captain was in a very tight spot, and he did the best he could. I looked at him, and all he was doing was just concentrating on trying to keep the boat from causing the most damage."

Andracchio said the damage to the dock was fixed by the city early Sunday morning. There was some damage to the PT 728, owner Bill Bohmfalk said, but the cost of those damages is unknown now. The PT boat takes people on pleasure rides with a narrated history talk.

"You know something that's pretty funny, though?" said Bohmfalk. "The Bill Collector, unfortunately, has the distinction of being one of only two boats in history to ram a PT boat. The other was with JFK and the PT 109.

"You young folks won't get that," he said, "but the older people will."

Schooner Wharf Bar owner Evalena Worthington said of the collision: "That's one way to crash a party,"

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