RedactedNarrative: INITIAL REPORT
  On August 18, 2016 at approximately 1545 hours I (Ranger) was dispatched to a distress call from a house boat in the vicinity of Escalante Arm of Lake Powell. The initial report was for a house boat that had lost propulsion and was getting close to hitting the canyon wall. Upon arriving on scene at 1739 hours, I assisted the house boat in anchoring on the beach.
  
  INVESTIGATION
  I conducted a field interview with the operator of the "Titan" at the time of the accident. OPERATOR1 stated that at around 1500 hours he was backing the "Titan" from its location on the beach when the port engine stopped working. OPERATOR1 stated that the steering became difficult at which point the starboard engine went into neutral automatically. OPERATOR1 tried to restart the starboard engine but could not resolve the issue. Next the wind began to pick up and blew the house boat into the rock wall where the starboard side contacted the wall scratching the stern and ripping off the water slide. They used their ski boat and fishing boat to pull the house boat to a nearby beach.
  
  While pulling the "Titan" onto the beach. OPERATOR2 was pulling from a line affixed to the stern of the "Titan" with his vessel. OPERATOR2 was "attempting to straighten out the house boat" and continued to stay on the throttle despite the bow of his vessel rising and more water coming over the stern of his boat. OPERATOR2 continued to increase the throttle until the bow was nearly vertical in the air, at which point the weight of the motor, and the vertical position of the boat rapidly sunk in about 15 feet of water. So just the bow of the boat was sticking up above the water.
  
  At approximately 1700 hours OPERATOR3 was operating the vessel when he struck the side of the "Titan" while it was beached. OPERATOR3 stated that due to the storm the waves pushed the PWC towards the PWC rack on the back of the "Titan" too fast, at which point he tried to steer away from the back of the "Titan". As OPERATOR3 steered away from the "Titan", he was pushed by a wave so that the PWC skid impacted the port side of the PWC's hull.
  
  DISPOSITION
  I have determined through my field interview and investigation that the cause of the accident was a combination of vessel mechanical failures, weather conditions, and operator inexperience.
  