Sailors were trying to rescue a friend who had gone overboard in 10-foot waves when their boat smashed into a breakwater in Lake Michigan on Wednesday night, leaving three dead, officials said Thursday.
Two of the men killed were identified as the boat’s owner, John Finn, 45, and crew member Adam Kronen, 33, both of Chicago, said Gene Davis, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
The survivor, Joseph Sunshine of Chicago, 34, who was treated at Chicago’s Advocate Trinity Hospital and released, according to a spokeswoman, told police he did not know the name of the third man killed, the crew member who initially fell overboard.
The men were part of an “experienced crew” moving the 35-foot sailboat Jason from Monroe Harbor in Chicago to Crowley’s Yacht Yard along the Calumet River, where it was to be taken out of the water for the winter, Davis said.
About 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, the boat was in rough conditions about a mile and a half off of 95th Street when one of the men fell overboard, U.S. Coast Guard Boatswains Mate Michael Arnold said. The others notified the Coast Guard and circled the boat around to try to rescue the man, but waves as high as 10 feet began pushing the boat into the breakwall, he said.
“The weather pushed them into the wall, and the boat broke up,” Arnold said. “It happened very fast.”
Coast Guard boats arrived and called for a Chicago Fire Department helicopter, divers and Chicago police boats, Arnold said. Rescuers were hampered by darkness, high winds and waves but were able to locate the men at various points along the rock wall, including the man who had fallen overboard and apparently washed up there, he said. Three of the men were unconscious, Arnold said, adding that all four were wearing life jackets.
The men may have been in the water for as long as 45 minutes, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.
“We found a 5-foot section of the bow, but we’re still looking for the rest,” Arnold said.
One person had been waiting for the men to arrive at Crowley’s, according to Arnold. A woman who said she was a girlfriend of one of the sailors contacted the Coast Guard and said the men were overdue, but they had already been rescued by that time, Arnold said.
The accident occurred just a few hours after the National Weather Service issued a small craft warning, reporting waves over 9 feet in the middle of the lake with wind gusts up to 35 knots, said meteorologist Tim Halbach.
“The waves are big enough for whitecaps out here,” Langford said from the lakefront at 95th Street. “One of the guys [a Fire Department diver who had been dropped from a helicopter to rescue one of the men] said it was the most difficult rescue he’s ever seen.”
The J-35 sailboat is recognized as one of the premier off-shore racing designs in the world. In 2005, Finn skippered Jason in the annual race from Chicago to Mackinac Island in Michigan, according to the official race Web site.
