Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
By Tony Doris

Published September 12, 2017

PALM BEACH SHORES — The Buccaneer has raised its Jolly Roger and fired a renewed legal salvo at neighboring Sailfish Marina Resort’s plan to expand a dock within cannon range of the condo’s slips.

In July and August, the Buccaneer Condominium filed a lawsuit in circuit court and a petition for an administrative hearing with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, alleging that Sailfish Marina’s proposed dock expansion would infringe on the Buccaneer’s water rights and dock expansion rights and make it unsafe for boats to get in and out of the Buccaneer’s slips.
 

It’s not just a matter of safety and inconvenience for condo owners who might use the nine slips on the south side of the Buccaneer dock. It’s also a matter of doubloons, for both sides.

The Buccaneer runs its dock as a marina, renting slips to visitors and using vacant slips to sell gas to boats coming in or out of the busy Lake Worth Inlet and popular Peanut Island. The bigger the boats the slips can handle, the higher the dock fees and the more gas they buy.

“We’ve had over the years on the south side anywhere from 58- to 65-footers in there and the slips that are permitted in our arrangement with the Department of Environmental Protection are 70-foot slips,” Bright said Wednesday. Narrowing the width by 21 feet makes it unsafe for boats that size to use the slips, especially with the swift currents near the inlet and the wind, he said.

The expanded dock would allow SailFish Marina, on the other hand, to fit more big boats than it does now. They’re getting rid of 32 smaller slips and adding 12 large ones, he said. Swapping out regular-guy spaces for millionaires’ boats, Buccaneer contends, violates a 2006 deal by which the county paid Sailfish $15 million to preserve public access to that section of waterfront.

“Small boat slips — out! Locals kicked out!” the Buccaneer’s billboard at PGA Boulevard and U.S. 1 reads.

This is the second skirmish between the marinas. Last year Sailfish pulled its plans after Buccaneer sought a state hearing to fight them. It filed a revised plan this year, though not revised enough to suit Buccaneer, which has returned to court.

Sailfish director of operations Bryan Cheney said last year that in the interest of being good neighbors, his marina altered its original plans and moved the proposed dock a little farther south to address the Buccaneer’s complaints. Sailfish has demand for larger boats but always will have slips for the public “to pull up and dine at any time,” he told The Palm Beach Post in June 2016. “We see it (the expanded dock) as a benefit for the county and the town of Palm Beach Shores and the boating community.”

In an emailed response Friday to a request for comment, Sailfish officials did not address the closeness of the docks but did say the plans were in the public interest.

“Sailfish Marina is currently improving the safety and public access to the docks, by replacing the fixed docks with floating docks,” the release said. “Sailfish Marina has committed by action to maintain a public waterfront with dining, specialty shopping and local charter boat activities. Sailfish Marina continuously works to maintain and upgrade the facilities, reinvesting in complete restoration of the seawalls, docks, lighting and our restaurant… $1 million to $4 million annually. These improvements are an investment in the community, consistent with the 2006 Palm Beach County $15 million grant….”