Cuban refugee 1959 Buick boat

The 1959 Buick boat was the second car-boat escape attempt by the Cubans behind the 1951 Chevrolet "truck-o-naut" voyage of 2003. Luis Grass and Marcial Basante spent three or four months adapting a 1959 Buick sedan owned by a friend, Rafael. In early February 2004 eleven people, including wives and children, set out across the Florida Straits.

Conversion

The Buick was rigged in a similar way to the Chevy, with propulsion from the car's drive shaft. Members of the amphibious-car community who followed the story thought it much more refined than the earlier truck. The car body sat down in the water, so the doors and body had to be sealed, and it had a neat bow fairing and a fresh green paint job, with a crude flybridge on top. Some reports describe it as a Buick powering a barge.

Interception

The Coast Guard stopped the Buick about 10 miles off the Florida coast and later sank it. Some of those aboard, including Grass and his family, were taken to Guantanamo Bay and later resettled in Costa Rica. Members of the Amphicar owners' mailing list debated offering the migrants honorary club membership in recognition of their resourcefulness.