PALM CITY, Fla. — The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an incident that happened on the South Fork of the St. Lucie River after members of the Treasure Coast Rowing Club said they were harassed and put at risk by reckless boaters earlier this week.
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Stefanie Falkner and Sean Ingles, a rowing coach with the Treasure Coast Rowing Club, said the confrontation happened Tuesday while their youth rowing team was out on the water practicing.
“We proceeded down south of the river, on the south fork river and they started to wake us,” Falkner said. “They started to use some foul language, gave us some birds and started to circle us. And they were just not listening and just, you know, [they were in a] 26 to 28 foot boat [with] twin engines.”
Ingles said the boaters passed them several times. They later discovered a viral TikTok video that appeared to make fun of the encounter.
“What I was appalled with was the situation as it happened, how they handled themselves,” Ingles said.
The Sheriff’s Office confirmed the video is part of its ongoing investigation. Ingles said the behavior created dangerous conditions for rowers.
“She’s sitting in a skinny shell so one wake for her is this big, big deal,” he said, explaining that a large wake could cause a rowing shell to tip or sink.
Falkner described the instability created by the boaters’ wake.
“It feels like the floor just got taken out from underneath you any stability that you’ve held by holding the ores in the middle and the ores out to port and starboard just kind of falls away,” she said.
Both Ingles and Falkner said they hope the incident encourages greater awareness around boating etiquette and safety.
“The parents that own the boat that bought the boat, I think they’ll think twice and maybe we get more than that, maybe we get consequences,” Ingles said.
