If you’ve driven down San Carlos Boulevard on your way to Fort Myers Beach, you’ve probably noticed the massive, three-story yacht stranded on land, just feet from the road.
The 80-foot boat has become one of the area’s most unusual landmarks. Some call it an eyesore. Others say it has character. But no matter what side you're on, it’s hard to ignore, but now, it’s finally coming down.
The yacht, known as The Six Toed Cat, has been beached since Hurricane Ian. It was once a floating Airbnb with beautiful rooms, docked near the marina behind it. During the storm, the boat was torn from the water and thrown onto neighboring property.
Kip Holmes, the manager of Your Boat Club marina, remembers it well.
“The owner out rode out the hurricane in it,” Holmes said. “But it landed on our property and crushed our building.”
Holmes says the yacht stayed on his lot for months before being dragged back to its owner’s side of the property. Since then, it’s become a makeshift landmark.
“If you’ve hit the big boat on land, you’ve gone too far,” Holmes joked.
There's been many rumors floating around about what the yacht might become, especially now that construction equipment has been hauled onto the property beside it. Holmes says one of the craziest he heard was that it would be put on stilts 17 feet in the air and turned into a restaurant. “That was not going to happen,” he added, laughing.
Michael Staczek, who owns the property, says he did try to turn the boat into something useful. After Ian, he says they approached the county with plans to turn it into a possible structure or business. But zoning and engineering rules quickly shut the idea down.
“We just said, can we make it something, and they basically said no,” Staczek said in a phone interview. “I sold it to a new owner who was trying to save it to turn it into something, but now we’re out of time.”
Lee County Code Enforcement confirms the property is under an active violation case. A recent inspection found it still in non-compliance, and daily fines are now accruing until the boat is removed. Inspectors say they did observe active demolition happening on site during their visit last week.
“The insurance didn’t pay near what we had it insured for,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands.”
Darcy Kuenzel, who owns a nearby marina, says the boat has become symbolic of the long, messy road to recovery so many on Fort Myers Beach are still facing.
“It makes me sad to have any local lose more than we’ve already lost,” she said.
Whether you saw it as a quirky icon or a burden, the Roadside Titanic’s time on San Carlos Blvd. is coming to an end.
The current owner says he expects the boat to be gone by the end of February. He's hoping to save some of the parts and maybe one day rebuild it with pieces of the past.
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