Boat towing is supposed to be one of the most routine jobs on the water. A smaller vessel nudges a bigger one along at a crawl, everybody waves at the tourists on the Riverwalk, and nothing more exciting happens than a seagull complaining about the wake. That was not exactly how Monday morning went down in Fort Lauderdale.
A 112-foot Westport motor yacht named “The Determination,” based out of Sarasota, was under tow on the New River when it veered off course and slammed into a city dock near a stormwater pump station at 100 N. New River Drive. The impact tore into the dock’s support pilings, damaged the roof of the pump station, and clipped a nearby two-story building along the Riverwalk for good measure, reported CBS News.
A local boater who goes by Mobile Mike happened to be out for a walk and caught the whole thing on video. He said the yacht was moving at what he described as an unusually high rate of speed for a tow, which is a bit like watching your neighbor’s riding lawnmower suddenly develop a need for speed. His footage shows the tow boat, marked as belonging to Steel Towing, running alongside the yacht right up until things went sideways, literally.
The good news, and there’s always a silver lining with these things, is that nobody got hurt. Two people were aboard the yacht, and both tow boat captains managed to get clear before impact. Considering the size of the vessel involved, that counts as a genuinely lucky outcome.
What Caused the Crash
Officials haven’t released an official cause yet, and the investigation is still ongoing. One local yacht broker who lives along the river said he could hear the tow captains on the radio trying to slow the boat down and simply couldn’t get it under control in time.
He also noted that dozens of yachts pass through by tow every year without incident, calling Monday’s crash the first thing like it he’s seen in over a decade living on the water. So this wasn’t a case of sloppy towing becoming the norm, more like one bad day that nobody saw coming.
The Damage and Response
Fort Lauderdale Police and Fire Rescue responded quickly, and city crews closed the adjacent sidewalk and put up barriers to keep people away from the damaged property.
A structural engineer has been called in to inspect both the pump station and the seawall below the waterline to make sure nothing more serious is lurking beneath the surface.
Who’s Investigating
The city has filed a report with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s Marine Unit, and the U.S. Coast Guard has also been notified.
For now, the area near the pump station remains closed off while assessments continue, and updates are expected as the investigation moves forward.