Teen Stops Runaway Boat On New Hampshire Lake
HuffPost
Brady Procon, 17, is being called a hero for safely stopping an empty runaway boat speeding in circles on Lake Winnipesaukee.
GILFORD, N.H. (AP) — An empty runaway boat speeding in circles on New Hampshire’s largest lake was brought safely to a stop by a teenager who jumped aboard from a personal watercraft.
Rich Bono, who captured the events on video, said he was on the dock Wednesday in Lake Winnipesaukee’s Smith Cove when he heard some commotion in what is usually a quiet, no-wake zone.
“I can hear an engine revving, and I looked down the end of the dock toward the noise and saw a boat circling, circling, circling, and no one was in it,” he said. “Obviously, that’s not good.”
Bono later learned that the boat’s operator, a sailing instructor, had reached into the water to pick up a tennis ball used for teaching when one of the students’ sailboats tipped over. The sailboat’s mast hit the motor boat’s throttle, sending the instructor overboard and the boat into a spiral.
Brady Procon, 17, hopped on the back of his neighbor’s personal watercraft. They pulled alongside the runaway boat, and Procon jumped onto it and cut the engine.