U.S. Coast Guard officials are investigating the sinking of a 25- foot Mako power boat which occurred in Cruz Bay harbor sometime during the night of May 6 or early morning May 7.
After boating on Good Greef on Sunday, May 6, owner Gregory Pogan tied the vessel to his mooring, located just beyond the Cruz Bay harbor swim zone on the Wharfside Village side of the Loredon Boynes Ferry Dock, around 7 p.m. By 1 a.m. early Monday, May 7, Good Greef was completely upside down.
“At 7 p.m. I had pumped it dry and at 1 a.m. it was sinking and turtled; just completely upside down,” said vessel owner Gregory Pogan.
When he left the vessel, Pogan had no leaks or other issues which would have caused the vessel’s sinking, the St. John resident explained.
“There is no reason my boat sank without something extraordinary happening,” said Pogan.
“There had to be an impact by a larger boat.”
While he doesn’t know exactly what occurred, Pogan has heard from two witnesses who heard and saw a ferry interfere with Good Greef, he explained.
“I have a sound witness and an eyewitness and their times match up to right about when the midnight ferry comes in,” Pogan said. “When that ferry came in they were maneuvering to pull up to the dock and they must have impacted my boat.”
“My boat is so much smaller than the ferry, if they just put the edge of the ferry on mine and
powered through, they would just roll me right over,” he said. “They might not even have felt it.”
The ferry boat operators had no record of any incident that night, Pogan added. “The ferry companies are saying nothing was recorded so it couldn’t have been them,” he said.
U.S. Coast Guard officials are investigating the incident and plan to conduct inspections and interview witnesses, explained USCG spokesperson Ricardo Castrodad.
“It was reported to us that the vessel was tied to a mooring ball in Cruz Bay and an incident occurred which caused the vessel to sink,” said Castrodad. “It is under investigation and at this time we don’t know what caused the vessel to sink. We cannot say it was a ferry at this time.”
“Investigators were out there and they were able to speak to the owner of the vessel,” said the USCG spokesperson. “We will be interviewing witnesses as well.”
The USCG’s investigation could take several weeks or more, Castrodad added.
“These investigations can take some time,” he said. “The timetable is determined upon the completion of the investigation and we don’t know how long that will take. It could be several weeks depending on the complexity of the case.”
USCG officials were able to inspect the vessel on the hard. Good Greef was hauled to the Cruz Bay beach and righted on Monday afternoon, May 7, thanks to a great community effort, explained Pogan.
“The boat was salvaged with a lot of help from locals,” he said. “We were able to get it close enough to shore to lift it up and turn it over. A lot of people helped us out and just grabbed a line and helped me roll it over.”
“People were really helpful,” Pogan said. “Crisis seems to bring out the best in a lot of people.”
The USCG’s vague timetable will not be much help to Pogan, who did not have insurance on the private vessel. Likely lost are Pogan’s twin 150hp Mercury Mariner outboard engines — which were less than three years old and valued at around $18,000, according to Pogan — and brand new batteries.
“I just bought new batteries two weeks ago,” said the vessel owner. “After we salvaged it, my mechanic told me ‘Thank God you had new batteries, it was enough to fry everything.’”
In addition to replacing the motors, batteries and electrical connections, Pogan is also looking at about $2,000 to $3,000 in structural repairs to Good Greef, he added.
Pogan and USCG officials are urging for anyone who heard or saw anything related to the sinking of Good Greef to call the USCG Marine Safety Detachment on St. Thomas at 776-3497.
