UPDATED: Fatal Boating Collision Kills Female Crew Member in Newport on Sunday

UPDATED: Fatal Boating Collision Kills Female Crew Member in Newport on Sunday

A fatal boating collision occurred on Sunday in Newport, Rhode Island — that took the life of a female crew member participating in a regatta. 

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a sailboat taking part in a regatta collided with a “pleasure craft” — with a death resulting.

“There was an accident on Sunday — there was a boat racing in a regatta that was involved [in a collision] with a pleasure craft with a death resulting,” U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Zachary Hupp told GoLocalProv Sunday evening. 

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“I don’t have information as to which race it was,” said Hupp. 

At 7:40 p.m., Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management issued the following:

At 2:45 PM today the United States Coast Guard (USCG) put out an urgent marine information broadcast of a person in the water on the Jamestown side of the Pell Bridge. The Narragansett Bay Marine Task Force was activated and the Newport Harbormaster responded first and recovered a 60-year-old woman, unconscious, resulting from a collision between a powerboat and a two-person catamaran sailboat. She was racing in the New England 100 Regatta. The woman was later pronounced dead. Alcohol was not a factor. Both vessels were transported to Fort Adams State Park. The woman’s identification is being withheld pending notification of her family. DEM is investigating the incident. DEM has no further details at this time.

The regatta in which the decedent was participating was not sponsored or organized by Sail Newport. The New England chapter of the NACRA Sailing Association organized the event.