RedactedNarrative: On November 28, 2016 at approximately 9:50 am, a boating incident occurred in the Beaufort inlet involving two men named Operator#1 of Springhope, NC and Passenger#1 of Knightdale, NC.  The two men have fished together for 45 years and expected another excellent fishing trip. The trip took a turn for the worse as events unfolded. 
  
  Operator#1 and Passenger#1 launched from the Newport River access area at approximately 8:15 am that morning and went fishing around Morehead City till they reached the Beaufort inlet on the east side of the inlet.  The two men decided to change fishing locations and Operator#1 got behind the wheel of his boat (vessel number 1) while Passenger#1 went to pull up the anchor. Passenger#1 started to pull up the boat anchor but could not pull the anchor up. The anchor seemed to be stuck.  At that point Operator#1 started the boat motor and proceeded towards the direction of the anchor.  At that time the men noticed a stray rope wrapped around the anchor line that was out.  Passenger#1 was still having difficulty pulling up the anchor due to the strong currents that were going thru the inlet due to the changing tides.  Passenger#1 then proceeded to let more anchor rope out and at that moment,  vessel number 1 turned 180 degrees and the bow was facing towards the Atlantic Ocean. Operator#1 noticed that all of a sudden the motor shut off.  Operator#1 restarted the motor and the motor shut off once again.  Operator#1 trimmed the motor out of the water to find a rope wrapped around the boat prop several times.  While both men were trying to cut the rope off of the prop, Operator#1 noticed water starting to come inside the vessel 1 from the stern.  Operator#1 turned on the bilge pump and saw that the starboard side of the stern went underwater.  Both men jumped out of the boat but Passenger#1 stayed close to the boat.  At that point a good Samaritan in another vessel saw what was taking place and went to the aid of Passenger#1 and Operator#1.  The good Samaritan pulled next to vessel 1 and Operator#1 was able to get on board the Samaritan's vessel.  At that point vessel 1 was capsized.  Operator#1 and the good Samaritan tried to get to Passenger#1, but according to Operator#1 he could feel that Passenger#1's PFD was hung on a boat cleat as they tried to pull him in the Samaritan's vessel.  Operator#1 and the Samaritan were able to get Passenger#1 lose from the overturned vessel 1 and brought him onboard the Samaritan's vessel and began to administer CPR.  The Coast Guard, Sea Tow, and members of Tow Boat US responded to the scene as Operator#1 and the good Samaritan worked on Passenger#1.  At that point the Coast Guard jumped onboard the good Samaritan's vessel and drove it to Ft. Macon station.  EMS met everyone at the station and worked on Passenger#1 till it wasn't successful.
  
   Sea Tow recovered the overturned vessel and pulled it back to the Newport River access area and loaded it on its trailer and turned the vessel over to Operator#1. Operator#1 then gave an account for what took place and notified family and friends.  After talking with witness who responded to the scene, it was clearly an accident and no negligent actions took place on the part of Operator#1 and Passenger#1.
  
  *************************************