121′ Yacht “LOVEBUG” sinks at mouth of West River

A 110-foot yacht named “LOVEBUG” sank Saturday near the mouth of the West River in Edgewater with five people aboard, none of whom were injured.

Authorities arrived at the scene around 12:30 and found the ship had capsized. The cause is still unclear.

Trevor Hardman, a retired Prince George’s County firefighter and owner of Tour Boat Annapolis, was one of the first on the scene.

Images courtesy of Trevor Hardman:

According to Hardman,

We were in the West River and saw the boat listing to one side. Something seemed wrong. We ran over and called the Coast Guard. We heard the captain yelling for help as the boat started taking on water. Towboat US came to the scene and they pulled two people out of the water. The yacht “LOVEBUG” was followed by its tender and they pulled two more people out of the water.

We went to the boat and got the captain, the last one on board. He stated that he had not run aground, but that the boat was taking on water. He went to shallow water before they left the ship. We could hear the high water alarms going off as we approached the boat.

Trevor Hardman

Hardman said all five occupants were “medically OK.”

The “LOVEBUG” is regularly docked at the Annapolis Yacht Club. Built in 2010 and refurbished in 2021, it appears to be available for charter for $125.900 per week. It is not known if the boat was chartered at this time. According to the charter documents, it has a crew of six. It appears that the vessel left the Annapolis Yacht Club just after 8:00 am and, after a short trip up the Severn River, headed south into the Chesapeake Bay, turning into the West River just past the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse.

The yacht is registered to JABULABI CHARTER FLORIDA, located at 6200 Poindexter Lane in Rockville, MD.

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