Deep pockets and his 'Legacy'

The yacht's stubborn owner has spent millions trying to get his boat dislodged.

Peter Halmos, owner of the sailing yacht Legacy, pilots another craft away from the boat that's been stuck in shallow, and environmentally sensitive, waters off Key West. The yacht ran aground there during Hurricane Wilma in October 2005.
	[AP photo]

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] A line of houseboats called AquaVillage is the temporary home of Peter Halmos as he waits for his 158-foot luxury yacht Legacy to be removed from shallow waters nearby in the waters off Key West. [AP photo] A worker stands on the deck of the Legacy in the waters off Key West as a salvage company works to remove the yacht.

KEY WEST - Looking like Noah's Ark after the flood, a 158-foot yacht driven aground by a hurricane lies just offshore, mired for almost two years in a dispute with the government over how to free it without doing too much damage to the sea grass.

Through it all, the boat's owner, Peter Halmos, has stubbornly insisted on staying aboard or living close by on a cluster of houseboats so he can guard his beloved Legacy against pirates and thieves plying the waters off Key West.

A Hungarian emigre who made a fortune selling theft protection to credit card holders, Halmos estimates he is spending more than $1-million a month maintaining the houseboats and moving the Legacy, which is finally - though slowly, very slowly - being pulled free.

"After two years, you kind of get numb to it. It used to make me physically sick," said Halmos, who bought the boat in 1995 for $16-million.

Plastered with "No Trespassing" signs, the sailing yacht with a gleaming white bridge sits upright in less than a foot of water about 2 miles offshore, a tattered American flag flying above. Its mast and boom are gone, its dark-blue hull is scuffed, its wooden deck weatherbeaten.

But the hull is intact.

Halmos, who is in his early 60s, was aboard the Legacy with six others when Hurricane Wilma struck in October 2005. Instead of heading out for the open sea, he decided to ride out the storm near shore.

But the anchors did not hold, and Wilma repeatedly lifted the boat and slammed it down.

When the storm had passed, the Legacy was aground miles away from where it had anchored, stuck in a federally protected area where sensitive varieties of sea grass provide a habitat for fish.

If Halmos were simply to drag the Legacy out, it would damage the grass and he could be hit with millions of dollars in fines.

But for months, Halmos and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were unable to come to terms on a plan to remove the Legacy.

The two sides finally came to an understanding in January - Halmos will have to replant the damaged sea grass at his own expense. But then they had to work out the details of the plan to extricate the boat. And then a diving company had to specially make a pump.

Finally, in mid September, workers from a salvage company began operating a machine that uses powerful streams of water to cut into the sea bottom in front of the Legacy. A boat hundreds of yards away is using a large winch and two heavy cables to pull the Legacy into deeper water.

The Legacy is moving about 10 feet per day. With a total of about 1,300 feet to be covered, the job will take several weeks.

"There's been some red ink that last couple of years. Luckily, I have enough zeros after my name that I can absorb it," Halmos said.

After the wreck, Halmos, his captain and two crew members stayed aboard the Legacy for six months. Later, they began staying on eight lashed-together houseboats, while Halmos' wife continues to live at the couple's house in Palm Beach County.

But given the beauty on and around his houseboat, it is not at all certain Halmos will leave once the Legacy has been freed.

"People who spend some time out here genuinely feel there's a healing aspect to it," he said. "I'm sensing there's something meaningful here. I can't see myself resuming the life I had onshore. I can't even envision it."

1,300 Feet Peter Halmos' luxury yacht, the Legacy, must be moved to unground it.

10 Feet the yacht is being moved each day, so it doesn't hurt protected sea grass.

8 Houseboats in AquaVillage, where Halmos is living while the Legacy moves.

$1M Amount Halmos is spending to maintain his houseboats and move the Legacy.

$16M Amount Halmos paid for the Legacy, which is 158 feet long, in 1994.

[Last modified October 5, 2007, 23:21:41]