If you’ve ever griped about the cost of storing a boat over the winter, brace yourself. There’s a fellow down in Key West who apparently found a workaround, and it involves letting the state of Florida foot the bill instead. Somewhere out there, every marina owner who’s ever charged storage fees is reading this story and quietly seething.
James Huckabay Jr., 69, has spent the better part of six years cycling through boats the way some of us cycle through phone chargers. Except instead of losing them in a couch cushion, he’s been letting them sink, drift off, or simply rot in the water until the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) had no choice but to haul them out at taxpayer expense. The tab so far: north of $372,000, reported Tampa Bay Times.
That’s not a typo, and it’s not a one-time mishap either. According to FWC records, Huckabay has picked up more than 20 citations since 2020 for boats he owned or was living aboard that had no engine, no steering, and apparently no future. The violations piled up so consistently that a court eventually stripped him of the ability to even register or title a boat in Florida. That’s the boating equivalent of getting your license permanently suspended, and somehow it still wasn’t the end of the story.
Last week, that long streak finally caught up with him in the form of handcuffs. Key West police arrested Huckabay on two felony derelict-boat warrants, wrapping up a saga that reads less like a boating violation and more like a slow-motion sitcom with a very expensive laugh track.
How the Latest Arrest Went Down
Marine patrol officers tracked Huckabay down near Old Houseboat Row, where he was spotted riding in a dinghy with two other people. Officers flipped on their lights and told him to stop. He didn’t, at least not right away, which feels almost fitting given the theme of the last six years. Eventually he pulled over and was taken into custody.
The boat that triggered this particular investigation was a 20-foot sailboat tied to a partially sunken floating structure resting on the seagrass below. Its registered owner told investigators she couldn’t afford the boat anymore and had simply let Huckabay stay aboard. Neither the sailboat nor the structure it was tied to could move under its own power, which is generally frowned upon when you’re technically parked in open water.
A Pattern That Goes Back Years
This wasn’t Huckabay’s first rodeo with FWC Officer Riana Sargent. Back in March 2025, she caught him with another derelict vessel and told him plainly he wasn’t allowed to own a boat in Florida anymore. She gave him a deadline to anchor it for removal. When the salvage crew showed up, the boat had vanished.
Huckabay’s explanation was that he moved it, a storm hit, and it presumably sank somewhere out there. It was never found, which is either terrible luck or an incredibly convenient excuse, depending on how charitable you’re feeling.
Sargent then found him with a pontoon boat that, shocker, needed engine repairs and couldn’t move either. She gave him a week to clear it out. A month later, someone sent her a photo of the same boat “haphazardly secured” to an unregistered trailer on Stock Island. By the following July, Huckabay had reportedly gifted that boat to a friend, who put it right back in the water in the same sinking condition. The state ended up paying to remove it, again.
The Numbers Behind the Chaos
All told, FWC says Huckabay has been the subject of 13 separate derelict-vessel investigations in Monroe County since 2020 and has racked up 24 citations he’s never paid. Officer Sargent summed it up plainly in her report, noting that despite repeated enforcement, costly removals, and the loss of his boating privileges, Huckabay kept right on possessing and operating vessels in violation of state law.
Huckabay was released from the Monroe County jail a day after his arrest after posting a $10,000 bond. He’s due back in court on July 29 and is being represented by the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office.
Whether this is finally the chapter that ends the cycle remains to be seen. But if there’s one thing this story proves, it’s that in Florida, even the boats seem to have more lives than a cat, and considerably worse luck.