Coast Guard Also Blames Skipper for Sinking Fatal to 10

Negligence on the part of skipper Gary A. LaMont led to the Feb. 5 sinking of the charter boat Fish-n-Fool off the Baja California coast, about 150 miles south of San Diego, the Coast Guard reported Friday.

The Coast Guard’s findings were not unexpected. The National Transportation Safety Board, which conducted a joint investigation of the accident with the Coast Guard, reached the same conclusion in a report released Tuesday.

Of the three crew members and nine passengers, only one crew member and one passenger survived.

” . . . The cause of the casualty (sinking) was the operator’s (LaMont’s) positioning of the vessel in close proximity to, and down the swell line from ‘Ben’s Rock,’ a chartered navigational hazard,” said the 24-page Coast Guard report. Ben’s Rock is an outcrop located about 2 1/2 miles south of Isla de San Martin.

Hit by 20-Foot Swell

Large swells are common near Ben’s Rock, and on the day of the incident the Fish-n-Fool, a 57-foot vessel, was hit by a sudden 20-foot swell at 1 p.m. The large wave struck the vessel broadside, causing it to capsize, said the Coast Guard report.

LaMont, who was steering the boat, was not seen after the capsizing. Cathy Compton, who was listed as the boat’s second operator and cook, was trapped in the galley for a few minutes as the ship floated upside down. The report said that one passenger was seen floating face down in the water, motionless, while the other crew members and passengers struggled to hold on to floating objects and swim away from the boat.

Eight men attempted unsuccessfully to swim to nearby Isla de San Martin, and one, James Sims, was rescued about eight hours later by Mexican fishermen. Compton was rescued at about the same time by the Coast Guard. The other 10 people on board drowned or are missing and presumed dead.

The report said that LaMont violated several federal maritime regulations, including:

- Allowing unlicensed passengers to operate the boat while he and Compton slept.

- Having only one deckhand on board when federal regulations require two.

- Failing to post an emergency check-off list on the vessel.

- Failing to brief the passengers on safety procedures before setting off on the fishing trip.