On 7/1/2023 at approximately 08:38pm, a boating incident occurred on lake norman.  The location of this incident is approximately .75 miles ne of the lake norman sandbar on the mecklenburg side of the lake.   The incident occurred when a passenger onboard jumped off the port side of the vessel while it was traveling north up the main channel.  Subject attempted to swim back to the vessel while it was still under sail and was unable to reach it.  Operator was also unable to make it back before he succumbed to fatigue and ultimately drowned as a result.

Operator stated that he set sail from the lake norman yacht club at approximately 6:30pm that evening.  They were traveling south toward the d-5 marker, then turned around and started heading back north toward the yacht club.  Wind speed was approximately 5 knots and both sails were up on the port side of the vessel.  Operator estimated they were traveling on a heading of 80 degrees at approximately 1 knot.

  With his attention on the sails and oncoming boat traffic, operator stated that his son jumped into the water without notice.  The swimmer was able to swim to the back of the vessel and reboard the vessel due to the slow speed of the vessel.  Moments later, before operator could express his disapproval, a second person jumped off the port side of the vessel.  Subject attempted to swim to the vessel as the previous passenger did.  Subject was unable to overtake the vessel while under sail.  

Operator stated that victim did not look like a strong swimmer, and that he was utilizing the "crawling" stroke to keep his head above water.  When the passengers onboard were alerted that subject was in distress, they scrambled to try and find something to throw him.  

Subject3, who was positioned in the rear of the vessel was going to throw a line to subject, but operator alerted him that it was not secured to the boat.  Subject3 threw a type iv pfd, life ring, instead.  By this point, operator had dropped the sails and attempted to start the engine to turn the vessel about toward subject in a more rapid manner.  

The engine would not start and the sails were approximately 3/4 the way down to the deck.  Operator stated he managed to turn the vessel around and got the jib filled with air and kept movement of 1-2 knots in subject's direction.  Halfway through the turn, operator saw that the life ring did not make it to subject.  

While sailing back to subject, subject2 jumped in to retrieve the life ring and swim it to victim.  The vessel was approximately 20-30 yards from subject when they saw his head go under the water.  They reached the approximate location where subject went under and continued to search from the bow of the boat while two subjects were searching from the water.  Search lights were being used, as it was getting dark.  By this time, subject4 had called 911.

Cornelius police departent lake patrol and ncwrc officers were first to arrive at the scene and aided the search for subject.  A marker was dropped in the approximate location that subject went under.   Subject was unable to be located.  Cornelious, mooresville and sherrill's ford fire department boats arrived shortly after nc wildlife officer followed operator back to the yacht club.  Officer conducted a safety inspection of the vessel and gathered witness statements.  Upon inspection, it was discovered that there was an insufficient amount of pfds onboard.  There were only 8 pfds with 16 people onboard.  It was also discovered that the vessel was not in compliance with the registration requirements in nc.  The search for victim continued until Sunday, july 2nd when his body was recovered by sherrill's ford fire department.
LAKE NORMAN
CORNELIUS                     