Where’s Gilligan when you need him?
A comedy of errors on a Long Island waterway resulted in one boat dangerously circling a yacht, the fleeing yacht running over a clamboat, and a couple on the clamboat ending up in the drink, a lawsuit says.
Roger Healy and Jessica Lee Young had to leap into the Great South Bay during a June spin on Healy’s newly-restored clamming boat after a huge pleasure craft came barreling at them, according to court papers.
But the yacht’s skipper said it wasn’t his fault because a third boat was “menacing” his 45-foot vessel.
John Kamen, 58, claims he was heading to Fire Island in his $200,000 Delta Moon when a boat bully came along and cut across his path.
That boat, skippered by Harold Sundin, began circling Kamen, the head of a Long Island tech company, according to documents Kamen filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
As Kamen tried to escape Sundin, he inadvertently veered toward the 32-foot Sabre, a 1978 clammer piloted by Healy.
“He had just restored the whole entire boat himself,” Healy’s lawyer, Michael Regan, said. “He took it out with his girlfriend on its maiden voyage and along comes Kamen and runs him right over.”
Healy and his girlfriend jumped overboard, suffering injuries, but managed to climb back aboard the damaged clamboat.
Suffolk Police pinned the blame on Kamen’s “operator inattention,” according to a Suffolk County Supreme Court lawsuit filed against Kamen by the couple, who were both hurt.
Healy, who clams for fun, and Young are seeking $2 million in damages, but Kamen, who lives in a gated community in East Islip, insists the damages are excessive.
Kamen has gone to Brooklyn Federal Court to claim that Sundin and Healy are responsible for the collision, and ask a judge to limit his liability to $30,000. A lawyer for Kamen declined comment. Sundin did not return messages.
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