On september 9, 2010, a boating accident occurred on lake norman at 131 ski haven place in mooresville.  Operator1, v1, was traveling south from his residence.  (note:  these residences are less than .2 miles apart within the same cove.)  He was operating a pontoon boat and was not carrying any passengers aboard his vessel at the time of this accident.  His boat had a two piece cover that was riveted to the side gunwales.  The bow portion was still in place, but he had removed the stern portion in order to operate the vessel.  This portion of the cover was waded up and laid on the backseat of the boat.  As he was cruising in the cove, he noticed that part of the cover was starting to fall into the water from the stern.  He stopped to retrieve the cover, then continued to travel southward.  He stated that he was distracted by the contents within his boat and was not paying attention to where the boat was heading.  He had gotten off course and was heading southeast towards the dock/gazebo area.  The bow end of the port side pontoon struck the middle front support of the gazsebo then traveled down the front of the dock striking the corner support.  The middle front support was severely damaged and almost snapped in to.  The decking and facial boards on the edge of the dock were splintered and scuffed.  The corner support was completely snapped into and pushed outward from the structure.  The middle support facing the floating dock was shifted inward approximately 1/4 inch near the top (noticable by tha lack of stain) and was bowed in at the center.  The pontoon boat showed damage only to the bow end of the port side.  The nose of the pontoon was bent from the impact and contained wood transfer stains.  The metal gunwale rail was also bent on the port bow area and the cover was ripped on the corner.  No one was on, or in the vicinity of the dock and no injuries were noticed in this accident.
MOORESVILLE                   