The Fort Pierce City Marina Manager, Dean Kubitschek, ejected the charter service “Smokin’ Em” charters after only 19 days. The service, ran by a local husband and wife team was asked to leave to keep from damaging the reputation of the marina as a family environment. The charter service has been running for about 3 years out of Stuart, Florida as strictly fishing charters but about 3 months ago they began offering a service they call bikini charters. For $100 a girl they will have one of the girls from their service be a mate on the boat in a bikini, bringing you food and drink, baiting hooks and putting lines in the water.
According to Kubitschek, this isn’t why the charter service was ejected from the marina. Soon after the 44′ Trojan began operating out of the marina, flyers for the bikini service began showing up in the Tiki Bar & Restuarant, which is on the same city owned land that the marina is on. The problem is the flyer featured nude women which is not in line with the image of the Tiki Bar or the City Marina. According to the charter service website, you can pay the girls an extra $50 to do the trip topless. The site features photos of the women, measurements and bust sizes along with hobbies, likes and dislikes. To be honest it reads more like an adult dating service rather than a charter service.
The owners of Smokin’ Em charters have stated their intentions to add a second boat to their fleet in Fort Pierce running out of another marina and a third boat operating out of Stuart, Florida. After being removed from the Fort Pierce City Marina, the owners have stated that they would discontinue the bikini charter service if allowed to return. That’s not going to happen, according to Kubitschek, “They had their one shot. I gave them an opportunity and they came in here under false pretenses; and then 17 days later the brochures showed up”, he said.
Personally, I support Kubitschek and what he is trying to do. I feel that the owners of Smokin’ Em not only tarnished the image of the city but gave the entire fishing industry a bad wrap. This is not the kind of thing I want my kids to be exposed to and I’m sure most of you would agree. Now I know they have operated their charter service out of Stuart for years and I don’t care personally if they continue to do so. But I for one don’t want them to run this kind of service out of our city, that’s not what Stuart is known for.
www.sailfishcity.com
