Boater missing off Point Jude

[JohnR]

There is a fisherman missing near Pt Judith when a 21 Whaler collided with a bigger gillnet boat. One person has been founnd and still one is missing...

From the Projo:
http://www.projo.com/news/content/pr...26b.10813.html

Fisherman missing, one injured after collision off Point Judith
Other fishermen helped the injured man cling to the hull of his capsized boat.

09/26/2002

BY ADAM C. HOLLAND
Journal Staff Writer


NARRAGANSETT -- A local fisherman was missing at sea and another was injured, following a collision yesterday between two fishing boats in Block Island Sound that capsized one of them, the Coast Guard said.

Two people were thrown overboard around 12:30 p.m. from a 21-foot Boston Whaler after it collided with the 38-foot fishing vessel Oceana about a half-mile south of the Point Judith lighthouse.

When Coast Guard rescuers arrived on the scene, they found three other vessels had come to assist. Two men were holding a third man up on the hull of the overturned Whaler.

"They were all three up on the hull, and they were holding him up there because he didn't really seem to have the strength to hold on himself," said Petty Officer Todd A. Haynes.

The man was taken to South County Hospital with apparent broken ribs. His medical condition was not known.

The Coast Guard has not released the name of either victim.

Divers from the Narragansett Police Department searched beneath the vessel but did not find the second victim.

"The current was just so strong that we had to help [the divers] get to the boat," Haynes said. "There was no way they could have gone to the bottom in that and made it back up safely."

None of the crewmen on the gill-netter Oceana appeared to be injured, said Petty Officer Jason J. Boop of the Point Judith Station.

A 47-foot rescue boat and a Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod remained on scene through the night, sweeping the waters with Night Sun high-intensity search lights.

Both fishing vessels were taken back to the Coast Guard dock near Great Island Road in Galilee. The Whaler was pulled out of the water and taken to the Coast Guard station on Point Judith Road. The incident is under investigation by the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office.

It was unclear whether weather was a factor. Winds were 15 to 20 mph, with 2- to 5-foot waves. Visibility was 8 to 10 miles, Haynes said.