In a quiet bend in the South River, where feathery reeds crowd the shore and the mud smells slightly sour when the sea rolls in, a 110-foot yacht sits moored in a narrow creek.
Its body is rusty in places. The deck sags. Graffiti and vines climb their ramparts. Small trees began to grow in what were once cabins.
For years, the ship was mostly a curiosity, spotted from above by drone or on Google Maps and whispered about in Sayreville bars and online forums.
Then, last fall, it became an issue in the courtroom.
Matt Dolitsky, a YouTuber who explores abandoned places in New Jersey and New York for his Two Feet Outdoors channel, is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 26 in Sayreville Municipal Court.
The 55-year-old’s alleged murder? Breach, when he decided to row out and explore the wrecked yacht.
His November 2024 video documenting the trip attracted more than 337,000 views — and, months later, a citation charging him with trespassing on private property.
“I was focused on the boat,” Dolitsky said in an interview with NJ.com. “You see this massive boat in this little stream and you wonder how it got there.”
Dolitsky’s videos are usually quiet, almost meditative. He glides through waterways and climbs decaying structures, recounting what he sees. His fans describe them as soothing, the kind of vlogs you can watch while getting ready for bed.
In the yacht video, he kayaks up to the ship during low tide. He climbs onto her fortified dock, crawls through the brush, and stands on deck, marveling at its size and condition.
“Nobody has any idea I’m here,” Dolitsky says at one point, shadow cast on a chimney as a truck honks in the distance.
What he didn’t expect was the notice that appeared in his mailbox six months later, warning that someone had filed a complaint against him in municipal court.
“I was kind of shocked,” Dolitsky said. “I was thinking, ‘How is that possible?’
The complaint, filed last June, alleges that on Nov. 1, 2024, Dolitsky kayaked to the property, crossed onto private land and boarded the yacht.
Violation is a disorderly conduct misdemeanor in Sayreville, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.
Watch “Urban Kayaking Adventure | Exploring an Abandoned 110 ft. Yacht Stuck in a Creek” on YouTubeWatch
The allegation was filed by Kersten Kortbawi, who owns the property on which the yacht is located and the surrounding area. Much of the space is occupied by Viking Terminal, an industrial park that leases to commercial businesses.
Kortbawi did not respond to a request for comment from NJ.com.
In a previous statement to the Home News Tribune, she said “No Trespassing” signs have been posted around the property for decades, and Dolitsky’s video shows one as he approaches the dock on the river.
“Importantly, the yellow and black ‘No Trespassing’ sign is shown in his YouTube video as he approached the dock in his kayak,” Kortbawi said.
Dolitsky disputes that account, saying he saw no such signage at the time and believes additional signs were installed afterward.
“I didn’t see any ‘No Trespassing’ signs or anything that said ‘Private Property,'” he said. “I guarantee you from the fact that they put up signs.”
In a video he posted in August updating his viewers on the case, he returns his kayak to the dock, where a “No Trespassing” sign can indeed be seen on a post.
The same post is empty in its original video from November 2024.
“Stinkersville”
The yacht has a longer and more mysterious history than the case surrounding it.
The ship is listed on Google Maps as the Blue Jacket, a luxury motor ship built in the Netherlands in the 1950s.
It is not clear when it fell into disrepair or was brought to Viking Terminal.
Brian Swider, who leased space at the terminal from 1990 to 1995 for his concrete company, recalls that the property’s owners — Kortbawi’s parents, Peter and Donna Roehsler — once had big plans to restore the yacht to its former glory.
“He was in his boats,” Swider said of Peter Roehsler, who died in 2011. Donna died in 2023.
“They had a crew of people working on that yacht the whole time I was down there,” Swider continued. “They invested a lot of time and money in it. To see how it is now – it’s a shame.”
Swider said the Roehslers ordered new engine parts, but later discovered the hull’s engine mounts were “beyond repair.”
“Then he put her there in the creek,” Swider said. “I lost track after I moved.”
Since then, the yacht has remained largely – but not entirely – undisturbed.
Other YouTubers have documented themselves aboard the ship in recent years. In a popular video from 2020, now deleted, two men kayak right up to it, crossing a makeshift walkway of PVC pipes and stepping onto the deck.
They explore the yacht, which is not yet covered in graffiti, and notice the smell of standing water and decay.
“Oh man, this thing is Stinkersville,” says one.
The other poses on the roof like Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in “Titanic”, arms outstretched: “I’m the king of the world!”
Neither man has been charged with a crime and neither responded to requests for comment.
It is unclear whether Kortbawi was aware of this video or others like it, and if so, why he did not file complaints in those cases.
Kortbawi is a civil litigation attorney and serves on the board of directors of the Middlesex County Bar Association.
She left her trading firm last November, according to her LinkedIn profile, which lists her current job as owner of Viking Terminal Holdings, LLC.
“How is it possible for a prominent lawyer to have a yacht abandoned in a creek?” Dolitsky asks in an update video posted on his channel late last year.
A sinking ship
New Jersey has long had an abandoned boat problem. But the Sayreville yacht probably doesn’t meet that definition.
That’s because Kortbawi owns both the ship and the waterway in which it moulders.
A public relations firm owned by the Borough of Sayreville told Patch last month that the yacht “is not abandoned” and “is owned by a private company.”
However, its rusting and rotting can pose a risk to the environment, some say. Dolitsky thinks so, pointing to visible holes in the hull and flooded engine bays.
“When the water comes in and out, I can only imagine that all the fluids that were in that yacht at one time have flowed out,” he said. “Diesel, oil, things like that.”
Kortbawi told the Home News Tribune that those claims are unfounded, noting that inspections by county and municipal agencies found no oil leaks.
The case has moved slowly since Dolitsky received the subpoena in June. A mediation session with Kortbawi preceded his probable cause hearing, but it collapsed almost immediately, he says.
“I was willing to mediate — that’s why I was there,” he said. “But if one of the parties doesn’t want to mediate, then they go to court.”
Dolitsky had no further contact with Kortbawi, whose motivations remain unknown.
“It’s not like if they fine me, she gets the money,” he said. “I don’t know what he’s getting out of it. Maybe he wants to make an example of me.”
In New Jersey municipal courts, anyone with direct knowledge of a violation can file a citizen complaint, and the court can hold a probable cause hearing to decide whether the case moves forward.
Sayreville police were not involved in the charge or investigated the complaint, according to Lt. James Novak, a department spokesman.
It’s unclear how much the case is costing Sayreville taxpayers to prosecute Dolitsky.
A district spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Neither does John Krenzel, the city attorney handling the case.
The protracted trial took its toll on Dolitsky.
“Who wants to have accusations hanging over their head?” he said. “Especially for something that, in my opinion, seems so petty.”
Online, the case has become a minor cause célèbre among fans of “urban exploration” videos and creators who see public waterways and abandoned structures as fair game.
Dolitsky, whose YouTube channel is his full-time career, insists he is not interested in controversy.
“I care about what I do and where I go,” he said. “I try to leave places better than I find them. I’m not out there trying to do harm.”
Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a favorite source by clicking here.