RedactedNarrative: On 7/15/12 at approximately 8:15 a.m. Operator was traveling South in South West Pass with four passengers.  Operator claims he hit a large wave from a nearby crew boat that caused the port sponson of his 20 foot catamaran to fill with water.  He realized the boat was filling with water so he beached the vessel on Marsh Island.  I, Sgt. arrived at the location of the incident at 10:00 a.m. I picked up Operator and his four passengers and transported them to Quintana Landing.  Operator anchored his vessel and left it on Marsh Island in South West Pass.  On July 24th I inspected the boat on its trailer at Leblanc Marine, the company that recovered the boat.  I could not find any hull damage to the boat.  I did notice the port stern splash well access cover was missing  Operator had stated the boat's port sponson had filled up with water after he hit the crew boat wake.  Both hull drain plugs were still installed and hull of the boat was full of rainwater.  No water was leaking out of the boat.  On July 27th Sgt. and I returned to Leblanc Marine to check the bilge pumps and electrical system on Operator's boat.  We found that the bilge pumps and the electrical system that powered the switchboard that controlled the bilge pumps was not properly connected.  Therefore the bilge pumps did not have electricity at the time of the incident.  There are three major ways that Operator's vessel could quickly take on enough water to make it list to port, and eventually sink.  The first is through the live well raw water inlet, the second is through the hull drain plugs and the third is through stern splash well access covers.  At the time of the incident the hull drain plugs were both installed and the raw water inlet was functioning properly.  The only other possibility would be the stern splash well access covers in the transom of the boat.  Operator claims both access covers were installed at the time of the incident however, subject, who conducted the salvage recovery of the boat could not locate one of the covers.  I attempted to locate the access cover when I photographed the vessel on July 24th but could not.  Operator's own description of how the boat quickly filled with water, only on the port side, strongly indicates that the port stern splash well access cover was missing and allowed the port sponson of the vessel to quickly fill with water.  This, in conjuntion with the bilge pumps being inoperable because of an improperly installed fuse on the bilge pump fuse panel, contributed to the sinking of the boat.
NameOfBodyOfWater: Southwest Pass/Vermilion Bay
NearestCityTown: Cypremort Point               