Stolen yacht runs aground near North Shore Park

The Coast Guard investigates 56-foot pleasure boat Too Much Fun, off North Shore Park. [EDMUND D. FOUNTAIN | Times]

ST. PETERSBURG -- Police believe a stolen yacht was abandoned this morning after it ran aground near North Shore Park.

The 56-foot pleasure boat, named Too Much Fun, was stolen from the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina, investigators believe. Police identified the owners, but they are out-of-state and haven't yet been reached. The boat is valued at half a million dollars or more.

Police say the boat was stolen early this morning from the marina. Whoever sailed it away apparently forgot to take a rope off a piling, which snapped off as the boat pulled away. Just before noon today, police heard from the Coast Guard that the boat had run aground on a sandbar just off North Shore Park in St. Petersburg.

This afternoon, the boat was sitting in two to five feet of water and leaning to the left. Police were standing lookout to make sure no one waded out and climbed aboard. It seemed the boat wasn't damaged, but investigators are waiting until a towing company can pull it off the sandbar at high tide early Sunday before they take fingerprints and do a thorough inspection.

-- Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer