No charges will be filed against the delivery captain of a motor yacht that sank in minutes after it hit the north jetty at Masonboro Inlet on Saturday, Oct. 31, an official from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission said.
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued the veteran yacht delivery captain, John Wampler of Ft. Lauderdale, who was not injured, after he issued a mayday from the 60-foot Sea Ray, Somewhere in Time, at 9:57 a.m. The pleasure boat sank rapidly but was then salvaged and towed to shore by TowBoatU.S. Gregory R. Wager of Eastchester, New York, was identified in Coast Guard records as the owner of the boat.
Wager did not return a call for comment. When reached by telephone on Wednesday, Captain Wampler said he had no comment and disconnected the call.
Wampler holds a 200-ton master captain license. His website,
www.yachtaide.com, cites more than 200 deliveries from New York to Florida, with more than 30 years’ experience in the maritime industry. The site describes him as an “engineer qualified captain with worldwide experience” who also holds an FAA airline transport license.
Wrightsville Beach’s Bluewater Yacht Sales broker Kelly White confirmed by text message Wednesday the 60-foot Sea Ray Sun Dancer 2007 was listed with him for $699,000. The Sea Ray originally sold by MarineMax locally and Wager may be the third owner.
Thom Cross of MarineMax stated in a Wednesday morning email the boat “is going to be ground up because she is unsalvageable.”
Wampler did not see the low wall leading to the north jetty at Masonboro Inlet, said Sgt. David Jordan of the resources commission, which investigated the accident. While the wall is visible at low tide, it’s submerged during high tide. The jetty is on navigation charts and has a sign to mark it for high tide, but Jordan said that Wampler had the sun in his eyes and may have confused the sign for a channel marker and turned wrong.
Wampler was planning to take the boat south when the accident happened, Jordan said.
“He’s not the first one to hit it,” Jordan said.
It took nearly 27 hours to lift the boat, which sank in the inlet, and tow it to a marina on the river in Wilmington, said Brooks Bridges, owner of the Wrightsville Beach TowBoatU.S.
Crews from TowBoatU.S. arrived at the scene of the wreck shortly after the Coast Guard rescued the boat’s operator, Bridges said. Crews worked for approximately 19 hours to raise the boat and then spent three hours towing it into Wilmington.
Crews used large lift bags to raise the vessel by attaching them to the submerged boat and inflating them until it was raised to the surface, Bridges said.
“It’s very dangerous work. We had divers in the water and they were working against strong currents,” he said. “Plus, there’s risk of the boat shifting around.”
Bridges said after the boat hit the jetty, its struts breached the hull and pushed through the vessel, creating abrasions and sizeable holes in multiple areas.
“Generally, when boats sink, they take a while, but this one went down pretty fast,” Bridges said.
The tow crew also had to contend with leaking fuel. The Sea Ray had 900 gallons of fuel on board and crews used oil containment booms and absorbent pads to clean up the spilled fuel.
“One of the most important aspects with a salvage operation like this is containing the fuel,” Bridges said. “It worked extremely well. There was virtually no environmental impact.”
A Coast Guard spokesman said one of its small response boats was on routine patrol out of the Station Wrightsville Beach when it received the mayday call at 9:37 a.m. Saturday morning. The boat arrived at the accident scene in three minutes.
The Coast Guard patrol took the motor yacht’s captain to its station. When the patrol returned to the scene, the boat had already sunk.
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Captain’s error,, the sun would be behind him on approach, as it rises in the east….guy was negligent and not paying attention to channel marks and charts….