INITIAL CALL:  At approximately 1500 hrs on 5/19/11 I heard NPS dispatch put out a call for a swamped vessel near the Castle Rock Cut.  They stated a rental vessel had picked up the occupants of the swamped vessel but the vessel itself was possibly sinking.  I asked NPS dispatch if they needed assistance with this and they stated they did.

RESPONSE:  I responded in my patrol vessel to the vessels location just north of the Castle Rock Cut on the Wahweap Bay side.  The winds were strong (steady at approx 25 mph gusting to approx 35 mph) and the waves were 3-4 feet high.  An NPS vessel had attached a tow line to the swamped vessel.  NPS Ranger asked me to take over the tow.  I agreed to do so.

ACTION TAKEN:  I pulled along side the NPS vessel and took their tow line and attached it to my vessel.  NPS Ranger also boarded my vessel to assist me with the tow.  We began towing the vessel from my stern toward shore slowly (just above idle speed).  The swamped vessel was sitting low in the water due to the amount of water inside the vessel and it began to take on more water from the waves that were crashing over the side of the boat.  The swamped vessels bilge pump was running but it could not keep up.

I feared the vessel was going to sink so I pulled alongside the vessel to side-tow it.  Just as I pulled along side the starboard side of the vessel a wave crashed over its port side, pulling that side of the vessel under water.  Ranger and myself secured the swamped vessel to my patrol vessel in a side tow position.  I then towed it to the nearest shoreline approximately 100 yards away and beached the swamped vessel.  I put it on shore in a location where the wind and waves were coming from the stern of the vessel to help keep it on shore.  The shore was solid sandstone with no vegetation or boulders to tie the vessel off to.  Ranger tied the swamped vessel to the largest rock he could find on shore and he gathered some of the debris that had floated out of the vessel during the tow.

We left the vessel there and returned to the government dock.  I met with the owner/operator at the stateline launch ramp.  He gave me a witness statement and I collected the other information needed for the boat accident report.  Operator stated he had just come through the cut and was traveling less than 10 mph.  He said he had to slow down from that because the waves were so big in Wahweap Bay.  The vessel quickly started getting swamped from the waves so Operator and his passenger put on their PFD's and flagged down another vessel for help.  Operator said the bilge pump and bailing bucket could not keep up with the waves coming over the boat so they jumped on another boat and left.

I told Operator where I had left his vessel on shore and that a lot of his gear had floated out of the vessel when it had become completely capsized.  He was concerned that I had left his bilge pump on.  I told him I was not willing to go back out in the weather to turn his bilge off.

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