RedactedNarrative: On Saturday July 9, 2016 at approximately 4:45AM, the Operator was met by two of friends to go out fishing into Lake Michigan. Operator states that he is in the process of buying the boat that he was using, located in slip B42 of McKinley Marina. Operator states that the boat, a 26' Robalo with two 200hp Mercury outboards and a 9.9hp kicker motor, also Mercury, operated without incident to a location due east of McKinley Marina. Operator states that once on scene, they were setting up for fishing when he noticed an uncommon amount of water in the engine well.  Operator states that he turned the bilge pumps on manual, however, the pumps were not keeping up with the amount of water in the engine well.  Operator decided to turn the boat around and head back to McKinley Marina, however, once turned around, the prevailing seas were such that they crashed over the stern and the boat began to sink.  
  
  Operator states that his two friends exited the sinking boat and he attempted to grab life preservers from the lower hold, however, the boat was vertical in the water within minutes and he had to swim out from underneath to avoid being pulled down with the boat.  
  
  Operator states that the boat partially refloated for a moment, then went back under the surface of the water.  Operator and two passengers clung to a floating cooler for approximately 20 minutes prior to the MFD boat rescuing them.
  
  All three subjects were conveyed to shore, refused medical conveyance and were checked out by Milwaukee Fire Department on scene.
  
  Operator contracted PC Survey/Salvage to attempt to locate the boat and raise it. Efforts to locate the vessel were made by MPD, DNR, Brew City Charters, using side scan sonar.   The vessel was located with sonar and subsequently raised it on Tuesday July 19, 2016.
  
  The boat was located at the following GPS numbers, 43 03.728N 087 50.738W in 57' of water. The boat was towed back to "Jerry's Docks" and removed from the water. MPD Officer  responded and took photographs of the boat, focusing on the stern of the boat.  Observations made were that a kicker motor that had recently been mounted on the stern was broken off as no backing plate was affixed. Additionally, access ports were not found to be sealed property, subsequently allowing water to enter the hull.
  