On the night of Saturday, February 9th, 2013, at approximately 2000 hours, RFC and I responded to a report of a boating incident on Lake Lanier.  We received a report of a boat running aground around 1915 hours across from Port Royale Marina.  We arrived at Port Royale Marina and tried to locate anyone who had information about the incident.  A security guard at the Marina showed us the owner of the vessel's boat slip.  We then talked with off duty Forsyth County Deputy who has a boat slip at the same dock. He said they nobody was injured in the incident.  He also said the boat was grounded directly across from the marina and did not present a hazard for other vessels on the lake.  Deputy gave us Operator phone number.  At 2117, I talked with Operator via cell phone.  He also said nobody was injured during the grounding of the vessel.  He said him and a friend went to Fish Tails to eat and were coming back to the marina and as he got close to the marina his wife called him on his cell phone.  He stated he talked to her for a few minutes and when he ended his call with her he ran aground.  

He stated he was trying to follow a track on his GPS, but he must have been reading it wrong.  He estimated he was going about 25mph.  He thinks everything was properly working on his vessel.  On Sunday morning, February 10th, at 0800 hours, I met with Operator at the boat dock where he keeps his vessel.  He had a couple of small band aides on his knuckles. He said he had very minor scrapes on his a knuckles from the boat incident.  Operator said he had been operating boats since he was a child.  He said he had started a boat education course, but did not finish it.  Towboat U.S picked us up and carried us to his grounded vessel where I took pictures of the vessel and recorded the registration number and HIN.  I looked inside the cabin of the vessel and saw a bag that had one empty Michelob Ultra beer bottle in it.  There were also a three Michelob Ultra beer bottle caps in a sink on the vessel. Operator and a couple of his friends then removed gear and equipment from his vessels.  When he finished I asked him what he thought the dollar amount of the damage was, he said it was probably around $100,000 if he could not repair the boat.  I also asked him had he had consumed any alcoholic beverages before the incident occurred, he stated he had one drink at Fish Tails during dinner. ***
GAINESVILLE