West Islip man arrested after erratic boat, engine fire off Captree Island

An erratic 24-foot boat, a grounded hull and an engine fire turned a June night on the Great South Bay into a Suffolk County marine response off Captree Island. Suffolk County police and the U.S. Coast Guard moved in after a 911 call came in around 8 p.m., then arrested Abimal Acosta, 58, of West Islip at 10:18 p.m.

Police said the vessel was traveling west of Captree Island when it drew attention for its movement on the water. By the time responders reached it, the boat had ended up beached, adding another layer of danger to a stop that already involved suspected impaired operation. The arrest on a boating while intoxicated charge underscored how quickly alcohol, darkness and open water can turn a summer outing into a public safety incident.

The Coast Guard’s presence showed the stop was more than a routine marine check. On waters like the Great South Bay, an erratic boat can threaten passengers on board, nearby boaters trying to avoid a collision and first responders who have to get close to a potentially unstable vessel. An engine fire raises the stakes further, because it can force crews to deal with both a law-enforcement scene and a fire-safety hazard at the same time.

The case lands in a county where boating is part of summer life and where local officials have long tied water safety to a hard lesson from the same bay. Brianna Lieneck, 11, died in a Great South Bay boating crash on Aug. 17, 2005, an incident that led to Brianna’s Law. Under the law, many motorboat operators age 10 or older must complete a one-time eight-hour boating safety course, and Suffolk County has promoted those classes through the Suffolk County Police Department’s Marine Bureau.

That local safety push sits alongside broader marine responsibilities handled by the Suffolk County Bureau of Marine Resources, which deals with bathing beach sampling, water-quality monitoring and harmful algal bloom tracking. For Suffolk’s South Shore communities, including West Islip, Bay Shore and Deer Park, the message from the Captree Island arrest is plain: on a busy bay, one impaired decision can quickly become a multi-agency rescue and enforcement operation.