One man dead at tournament
Man killed when boat capsizes during fishing tournament
By Ana Ribeiro
Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 5:45 p.m.
A man was killed Saturday morning when his small pleasure boat capsized in rough weather during a fishing tournament in Ocean Isle Beach.
Brant McMullan, organizer of the JollyMon fishing tournament, identified the boat that overturned as the Spring Run, of Holden Beach. Neither the Coast Guard nor McMullan would identify the three people reported to have been on the boat during the accident, which happened offshore in the Lighthouse Rock area.
Two of the boat’s crew survived, apparently without injuries, said Christopher Cole, petty officer with the Coast Guard North Carolina Sector; they were taken to Dosher Memorial Hospital in Southport to be checked.
“A good Samaritan in the tournament was able to find two of the three people on board in the water and safely recover them,” Cole said.
The third crew member, a male, was found dead in the water by another tournament participant, Cole said. The cause of the accident and death were being investigated Saturday afternoon, the petty officer said.
McMullan said this was the first tragic incident to ever happen in his tournament. He said the event will continue through Sunday.
But this was not the only mishap reported during the tournament on Saturday.
The day’s storms produced 2- to 4-foot waves about the time the first incident was reported at 11:50 a.m., Cole said. About 2 p.m., a second boat in the same tournament overturned near the Little River inlet at the state line with South Carolina, but all three people on board were rescued without injuries, said Jon Harrington, petty officer with the Oak Island Coast Guard.
Earlier in the day, in the midst of the storm, another five people – not in the tournament – had gone out on a small motorboat on the Cape Fear River near Zeke’s Island, Harrington said. They got lost in the torrent and their boat began to take on water, but they were all rescued safely and towed to Carolina Beach State Park, he said.
Star-News Correspondent Scott Nunn contributed to this report.
