On Aug. 18th, 2013 at approximately 8:30 pm operator was operating a 21 ft Transport, heading southwest towards the Galveston Causeway.  Operator1 stated that he had looked ahead of him and did not see any boats in front of him.  He then looked at his GPS and looked to the side of his vessel trying to identify where the channel markers were.  When Operator1 looked up again he saw a 72 ft. Ferretti yacht heading straight towards him.  Operator1 turned his vessel hard to port in order to avoid a collision.  Operator1s starboard stern impacted the starboad bow of the yacht.  Operator1 was knocked down, and his dog was thrown from the vessel.  

The operator of the yacht, Operator2 states that originally Operator1s vessel was on a parallel course with his vessel but then turned  in front of his vessel.  Operator2 immediately contacted the Coast Guard and made verbal contact with Operator1 asking if he was alright.  Persons aboard Operator2's boat retrieved Operator1's dog.  Approximately 30 min. later Coast Guard arrived and rendered aid to Operator1.  Operator1 complained of pain to his ribs and shoulder.  Operator1 refused to be put on a backboard and insisted he was alright to walk.  He stated to members of the Coast Guard that he had had several beers earlier that day. Operator1 was then taken aboard the Coast Guard vessel and his vessel was put into side tow.  They transported Operator1 and his vessel to the Galveston Yacht basin.  Operator1 met relatives at the Yacht Basin and they took him to UTMB Galveston for treatment.

Two days after the accident, Operator1's statement was taken by Wardens.  In his statement Operator1 stated that the reason he did not see the yacht was because it's silhouette blended in with the lights from the causeway. He was not able to see the yacht until it was fairly close to him, and he turned to port in order to avoid a collision.  Operator1 did not state whether or not he had been drinking that day and refused to release his medical records to Wardens.  A subpeona was obtained for Operator1s' medical records, but the hospital did not perform a toxicology on Operator1's blood.  As a result it is not possible to determine if Operator1 was intoxicated at the time of the accident. 
On Aug 24th, 2013 Operator2 had a phone conversation with Operator1.  According to Operator2, Operator1 stated that all he remembers is that he looked up and there was the bow of the yacht.  He also stated at least twice that he (Operator1) was at fault.  
The damage to the two vessels indicates that the starboard stern of the 21 ft. vessel impacted the starboard bow of the 72 ft. vessel at an approximate angle of 125-135 degrees, using the 72 ft. yacht as the reference vessel with the bow being 0 degrees and the stern 180 degrees.  As the stern of the 21 ft. vessel impacted the bow of the 72 ft. yacht, it was pushed under the water and the bow of the 21 ft. vessel rose up in the air and struck the upper portion of the bow of the 72 ft. vessel.  After the collision the 21 ft. vessel floated to the flats outside the channel area, where Coast Guard later retrieved the vessel.
Galveston