RedactedNarrative: This is a summary of the information i gathered concerning the boating accident in beaufort inlet on april 13, 2014 at approximately 05:00am.  According to the operator of the boat, and the owner of the boat, the two of them and 3 other passengers had prepared their vessel for a day of offshore fishing out of beaufort inlet.  They launched the boat from radio island access area and headed toward the inlet.  
  
  Operator said the guys had already found their seat in the bean bags for the long 50 mile ride.  Operator said it was pitch black but fairly calm waves heading out the inlet.  Operator stated that he was only going 10-15 mph due to how dark it was and with the dredge, he didn't want to take a chance on hitting anything.  Operator stated after he passed the second set of inlet markers, he ran into something very large that immediately brought the boat to a dead stop in the water.  Owner stated it sounded much louder than a car accident and he immediately got the pfds out for the crew before doing anything else.  Owner stated that once everyone had a pfd they saw what they hit which was a dredge anchor can unlit approximately 200 yards away from the dredge boat.  Owner stated he couldn't tell how much damage was done to the boat, but he knew it wasn't good.  Owner said he saw his fiberglass marks on the yellow unlit dredge can.  Immediately owner and operator made the quick decision to turn the boat back around as fast as they could and went back to the boat ramp to put the boat on the trailer.  Operator and owner both stated the boat had extensive damage done to the hull and port side of fiberglass and gelcoat. 
  
  Itook owner and operator out on my patrol boat thursday morning the 17th of april.  We went out to beaufort inlet to where the accident occurred and i saw the dredge boat, which was on the right side of the inlet markers and there were two yellow dredge anchor cans approximately 250 yards off the port side of the dredge vessel directly in the center of the inlet channel with no lighting at all on the cans.  All other cans and setup were on the starboard side of the dredge vessel except for the two unlit dredge cans that were set unlit in the middle of the inlet channel.  No alcohol or drugs were found to have contributed to this accident.  The victims' vessel was properly equipped with all the required equipment.  However, a pfd was not worn by the victims.