Central Keys 2004

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Article from the Florida Keys News dated Fri, Oct 29, 2004

Amphibious car leaves mouths agape
BY ROBERT SILK

ISLAMORADA — On television SpongeBob is an animated sea dweller that keeps children entertained with a never-ending string of antics.

But early last week in the waters near Islamorada's Holiday Isle, it was an amphibious car named SpongeBob that was dropping the jaws of everyone, big and small.

Peter Catranis, 46, from Newport Beach, Calif., pulled into Holiday Isle's marina on his 97-foot yacht, a 1964 Amphicar attached to the boat's roof. On land, the shiny light-blue automobile looks cool in the way that all well-kept classic cars do. But that's before Catranis drives the vehicle toward the nearest boat ramp and then keeps driving it, right into the water.

"It's been a hit at every harbor," Catranis said. "Sometimes it's embarrassing."

Amphicar Corp. was an independent automobile company that produced approximately 4,000 amphibious cars during the 1960s. The vehicles were designed to be watertight and they come complete with a bilge pump. The slightly suspended frame of the car's body keeps the exhaust pipe out of the water. But in 1968 Amphicar went out of business. Collectors estimate that less than 1,000 of the cars — or are they boats — exist today.

Catranis got his Amphicar slightly more than a year ago during a night of revelry in Newport Beach, he said. Since then he has driven it in the Pacific, on Lake Michigan and during his recent boat trip from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas and then to the Florida Keys.

"The reaction to the car is the same everywhere," he said. "People think you have a screw loose."

Nevertheless, SpongeBob has performed well both on and off the water and can sustain speeds of 8 knots at sea. During rough weather Catrinas said he closes the convertible top and the bilge pump works overtime. But as with everything else, the Amphicar should be driven with caution.

Catranis learned that from experience when the car went under while he was driving aggressively during a rough day off the shore of Newport Beach .

"I realized you can't surf with this thing," he said.

Driving the Amphicar turns one into a fleeting celebrity. Once, upon pulling onto a beach in the Bahamas, Catranis and his two sons were greeted by such a mob that they couldn't drive away.

"The people wouldn't get out of the way," Catranis said. "They kept coming up to us one after another. They kept us there for a half hour."

The amphicar is also sure to impress the ladies.

"I am married and in the marriage protection program," Catranis joked. "But the girls like this even better than a puppy on the beach."

Keys residents and visitors like it, too.

Last Tuesday Catranis took SpongeBob for a jaunt from Holiday Isle to the Whale Harbor sandbar. As the car approached a small group of boaters enjoying the often-rowdy party spot on a quiet afternoon, there seemed to be a universal reaction. Everybody went fumbling for their cameras.

"I thought I was hallucinating for a second," said Helena Berg, a vacationer from Tampa.

"That's really awesome," another reveler yelled.

But apparently it is not just humans in the Florida Keys that enjoy the Amphicar. Catranis said that during a previous trip on the water the car was trailed by a group of Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins.

"That freaked me out a little," Catranis said. "I didn't realize you had that many dolphins here."