Boat sinks itself doing stunts on Okanagan Lake

KELOWNA – A boat that sunk Sunday night in Okanagan Lake may have sunk itself by doing doughnuts.

“That’s what it looks like. On a calm surface, you won’t have much issue but if you do doughnuts, you’re now churning up the water and creating an unstable situation for the boat,” RCMP spokesman Const. Steve Holmes says.

“What can happen is that the hull can veer into one of the dips created by the doughnuts and disturbance of water. The boat must have sideslipped somehow and took on the water splashing over the hull in sufficient quantities that it wasn’t able to bilge the water out and began to sink.”

Holmes says police were called just after 9 p.m. by a West Kelowna man who spotted the orange and white boat submerged in the water about 300 metres off Kalamoir Park. He also saw the four occupants of the boat in the water, none of them wearing lifejackets.

Both the fire department rescue boat and the RCMP lake patrol boat were on the scene within 15 minutes and found a jet ski operator helping the victims.

The three men and one woman were taken to the Kelowna Yacht Club and examined by paramedics but were found to be okay and released.

Holmes says attempts will be made to salvage the 32-foot long cigar boat that’s sitting in 60 to 70 feet of water. No charges have been laid at this point. Transport Canada has been notified and is investigating the accident.

He urges all boat owners to either wear their lifejackets while operating their watercraft or to have them within easy reach.

To contact the reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.