On 06/02/2023 the owner of the vessel involved in the accident, went underway on his vessel with three others on board. They exited the Augustine Beach boat ramp and travelled east in the Delaware River towards the Hope Creek power plant in Salem New Jersey. Once in the main channel of the Delaware River, they altered course and travelled south. While travelling south, they agreed that the motor did not seem to be running correctly. 

At this time they altered course again back west towards the Augustine Beach boat ramp. Owner/Operator of the vessel gave the controls of the vessel to one of his passengers.  While Operator1 was operating the vessel, Owner was attempting to pull up the NOAA Charts for their area on his cell phone. 

Approximately one minute after Operator1 had control of the vessel, the vessel struck the submerged jetty in the area of green buoy 3. This impact caused a large hole to form in the keel of the vessel. Owner took the controls back from Operator1. 

Owner reversed off the submerged jetty and engaged both the forward and aft bilge pumps. The bilge pumps were not able to keep up with the amount of water entering the vessel so one of the passengers went below in the cabin and began manually bailing water with a five gallon bucket. 

At this time, Owner began to travel south to go around where he thought the submerged jetty ended. When he thought he was past the submerged jetty he turned west and struck the submerged jetty a second time. This impact was lower on the vessel causing the motor to fail. At this point the vessel was unable to make way so Owner set the anchor and waited for help. 

At this time, all persons on board dawned the accessible PFD''s. The crew of the boat continued to manually bail water out of the boat for approximately 20 minutes until the Good Will fire company arrived on scene and towed the vessel back to the Augustine Beach boat ramp.

 During my investigation of the collision I was able to determine that Operator at the time of collision did not have a boaters safety certification, and Owner knew Operator1 did not have boaters safety certification but allowed him to operate the vessel. Owner was issued a citation for Negligent operation of a vessel. No further action taken at this time.

Delaware River
Port Penn                     