14 DAY TRIAL // A sailboat sank between Orcas and Shaw Islands on Friday, September 14, after colliding with a ferry in the San Juan Islands.
The Washington State vessel, named the Hyak, smashed into a 27-foot (8.3-meter) sailboat. No injuries were reported in the Hyak ferry accident, KIRO TV reported.
Matthew Barnett and his wife were on vacation and they were traveling on the ferry at the time of the crash.
“We saw the boat impact the ferry. [...] The boat went underneath the ferry and [the ferry] went completely over it. We walked over to the right side of the boat saw it shoot out from underneath,” Barnett describes.
A man was the only passenger on the smaller boat, and he appeared confused after the collision. The ferry staff sent a rescue boat to pick him up. A rescue vessel was then dispatched from Bellingham with U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
The man is in his mid-60s and he has been transported to Peace Island Hospital on San Juan Island. He was sailing on the Norma Rae when he hit the ferry at around 2 p.m.
“An older man was sitting on the boat as it was sinking,” passenger Suzanne Lyons details.
The ferry crashed into the boat after departing from Lopez at 1:30 p.m. It was headed for Oscar, San Juan Journal reported.
“The sailboat was a mile (1.6 km) north of Lopez in the middle of the shipping lane. [...] I don’t know why the ferry pilot didn’t see the sailboat,” passenger Michael Bried adds.
Barnett informs that neither vessel honked. The sailboat captain should have yielded, as it did not have its sails up.
“It looked like negligence on two sides. [..] The boat captain in the sailboat, who was apparently below deck under power, and the ferry captain who completely did not see it,” Barnett comments.