These buccaneers are blasting more than just sea shanties.
The waters off the Bronx have become an aquatic disco, as so-called “party pirates” have been anchoring boats equipped with massive speaker systems near City Island and creating a din that is driving residents crazy.
Some locals say the tunes played by gigantic “churchero” speakers aboard the wild watercraft “can wake the dead” — as throngs of scantily clad women sometimes using a stripper pole and other revelers live it up onboard.
“We started noticing it about eight years ago, but it was a couple of knuckleheads having fun, the noise wasn’t nuts like it has become,” said John Sheridan, a nearly lifelong City Islander.
“Then COVID came along, and people started having fun on steroids on boats.”
The ruckus often happens nightly in the summertime around Hart Island, the city’s public cemetery at the western end of the Long Island Sound, in the Bronx.
The “pirate” vessels rendezvous within earshot of City Island residents, tying together to combine parties and blast their stereo systems.
“You hear it in the early evening but usually it’s a passing boat that goes away,” said Bob Preti, who moved to City Island in 2018. “By 10 o’clock at night, the boats drop anchor out there and the party just goes on and on.
“The Sunday night phenomenon is very funny because it goes on till four in the morning, you’d think that they have to go to work on Monday.”
The rocking yachts and jet skis have recently led to major problems that go beyond just noise. In June, nearly two dozen passengers were injured when a 35-foot party boat caught fire on the Bronx shoreline. The boat’s 33-year-old captain was charged with drunk driving.
Recreational boat operators are considered under the influence if they register a BAC of 0.08% or higher. For commercial boaters, it’s 0.04%.
“You hear the loud music at three or four o’clock in the morning,” said Frederick Ramftl, president of the City Island Civic Association. “There are also parties on Eastchester Bay, not just by Hart Island, so it’s all over the area here.”
One lifelong City Islander, who requested anonymity, has seen consistently troubling behavior from party boaters.
“I’ve seen them getting out of vans in thongs and mesh tops to board boats,” the person told The Post.
Residents and local officials want the presence of both the NYPD Harbor Unit and the United States Coast Guard around City Island beefed up to discourage the partying pirates.
“My office is trying to work with the NYPD to fund an additional Harbor Unit for a patrol stationed up on the North Shore during the summer months,” says Council Member Kristy Marmorato of the Bronx. “We still don’t have confirmation from the police commissioner just yet.”
Mamorato said in April the “NYC Pirates,” a jet ski club responsible for some of the parties, met with her staff, the NYPD, New York State Liquor Authority, Environmental Conservation Police and the City Island Civic Association to discuss safety and quality of life concerns caused by the ragers on the water.
James Reichelt, the Pirates’ leader, told The Post his group participates in events nationwide and they want to find common ground with the locals. Although Reichelt was not involved in the boat fire in June, he said he’s tried to help calm activities on the water.
“I’m one of the guys who kind of created the whole party scene in New York and around City Island and get blamed for a lot of parties and [boat] tie-ups,” says Reichelt, 39, of New Rochelle. “So, I try to help regulate some things on the water.”
According to Reichelt, known by the nickname “Whiteboy,” the parties moved around Hart Island years ago when he said his group was chased out of more populated places.
“At the City Island meeting, I saw elderly people and other people with newborns, and I wouldn’t want my grandma to hear the music and not be able to sleep,” Reichelt says. “I kind of understand it when you put it in a certain way.”
Boat enforcement falls under the purview of the Coast Guard. City Islanders said the agency isn’t doing enough.
Sheridan said the area needs “more law enforcement assistance from the Coast Guard, instead of looking the other way.”
The Coast Guard did not reply to a request for comment.
The NYPD said it is doing its part to keep the waterways around City Island safe and sound.
“The NYPD patrols the waterways within the New York City limits and enforces both municipal and state law through issuing summonses, making arrests, and impounding boats as necessary,” an NYPD spokesperson told The Post. “Year to date, Harbor Unit has issued 38 summonses to boaters, holding bad actors accountable.”
For now, party boaters continue to drop anchor near the City Island shore, where one local shared on Facebook that they heard “bass for the last 18 hours” over Independence Day weekend. And in late June, dozens of jet skiers turned up for a so-called “NYC Invasion” event dubbed “the biggest water event of the year.”
“I have some courtesy for the people, and the NYPD doesn’t want to get 200 calls, so I say turn the music down at least at 10 o’clock,” Reichelt said. “Ninety percent of the people will listen, but there’s always going to be some knuckleheads who think they could do whatever they want.”
Despite spending nearly $10,000 annually to register and park his boat through the city Department of Parks & Recreation, Malcolm “Tommy” Jones, 38, of New Rochelle, said the city should enforce laws but allow safe partying.
“I just want them to be fair all,” Jones said. “They could designate areas where we could do our tie-ups, but they make it very difficult sometimes for us to enjoy our boats.”
Zeeshan “Princezee” Ali, a humorist with nearly two million YouTube subscribers, has been aboard boats and jet skis with the Pirates, capturing the scene on the water with a drone.
“I don’t see really a problem with it, I feel like it’s just a community, like a yacht club,” said Ali, 34, from Astoria. “Everything is just so positive out there.”
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