BOSTON — A Coast Guard boat crew responded to a 21-foot cuddy cabin taking on water with four people aboard Saturday approximately 25 nautical miles east of Salisbury Beach.
Coast Guard Sector Boston watchstanders received report of the sinking boat at about noon and issued a marine safety information broadcast for nearby boaters to assist.
A good Samaritan aboard the 25-foot center console No Name responded to the call. No Name arrived on scene and the four people aboard the sinking boat, who were all wearing life jackets, transferred onto the No Name and waited for the Coast Guard to arrive.
“It was very fortunate the good Samaritan responded and was able to be on scene so quickly,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Bobby Cook, an operation specialist at Sector Boston's command center. “A working VHF radio, life jackets for all passengers, and the good Samaritan all contributed to lives being saved today.”
Coast Guard Station Merrimack River launched a 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew that arrived on scene at approximately 1 p.m. The four survivors transferred from No Name to the Coast Guard boat and were taken back to shore with no reported injuries.
A commercial salvage company was arranged to right, dewater, and tow the boat to Rye, New Hampshire.
The Coast Guard recently released 2015 recreational boating statistics. In the Northeast, recreational boating deaths decreased from 47 in 2014 to 34 in 2015, which is the second all-time low for our area, the first being in 2013 when there were 33 recreational boating deaths. Thirty of the 34 people who died drowned and 29 of the 34 deaths were the result of capsizing or falling overboard. Thirty-two of the 34 people who died were not wearing a life jacket.