Man dead after raft deflates on lake

Cathy Neville couldn’t believe the tragic news when she heard Friday morning that a man in an underinflated watercraft had died in Pinchgut Lake.

The evening before, Neville was about to dine at Pinchgut Restaurant, but decided to go for a short drive before going to her 6 p.m. reservation.

She drove past the western end of the popular cottage area. At around 5:40 p.m., in the area of what’s known as Gull Pond Road, she noticed two men in rubber dinghies on the lake near the boat launch there.

Neville said she noticed one of the inflatable boats had hardly any air in it. The man in it, she said, was sunk in the middle of the craft with the two sides of it sticking up in the air.

She didn’t give the sight any more thought until she heard a man who had been in an inflatable raft drowned early Thursday evening.

“I guess it’s the same guy that drowned,” Neville said of the image she recalled of the man she saw. “I’m sick here thinking about it because I keep thinking, when we saw the boys, everyone seemed fine.”

Police and the Bay of Islands Ground Search and Rescue team were called to the lake just after 6 p.m., according to the RCMP.

The preliminary investigation revealed there had been several people out on the lake when one of their rafts became deflated. One man became distressed and was unable to swim to shore.

The lake was searched with a search and rescue watercraft as bystanders joined in the effort, and a floatplane assisted in the search from above.

At around 7 p.m., the body of a 28-year-old man was located.

The circumstances and the cause of death are under investigation, but the police said they do not believe alcohol or drugs were a factor in the incident.

No one from the RCMP would provide further details of the incident as of press time Friday.

The police have not released the man’s name.