Operator of boat charged with Operating a Vessel in a Careless Manner
What started as a bright, cheery day quickly turned dark when a boat capsized at Steep Rock a few weeks ago.
When Wally Welchenko went to tie one of his boats back onto the dock on July 16, he was flagged down by a passerby on the beach, alerting him of a capsized boat. Welchenko and a helper quickly got in one of his boats to see if their help was needed on the water, and the further they got out onto the lake, the more treacherous the water became.
“Once I hit the point, it was very nasty,” he said. “We had like four-foot waves. It wasn’t a good time to be out.”
The first thing Welchenko and his helper saw on the water was the hull of a boat upside down in the water. Then he saw the owner of the boat pulling a woman toward a rock to get her on it — she had been under the water for a couple of minutes and was unconscious.
Welchenko’s helper had stepped off their boat by now to help two teen girls who were also still in the water. As Welchenko tried to keep his boat from smashing into rocks, he helped the owner of the capsized boat give CPR to the unconscious woman, and after a few minutes, she was conscious again. Welchenko then took the two young girls and the woman back to shore, taking them to the public dock where emergency crews could help.
Welchenko then ran to grab his stretcher board—something he’d had for 30 years but had never used until that day—and got the woman off the boat safely. They then returned to check on the boat owner, Peter Hofbauer, who offers professional boat rides and kayak rentals in Steep Rock.
The Express reached out to Hofbauer for an interview, but he declined, saying he works on the lake every day, he had an accident, and the important thing is that everyone is safe. Welchenko said his best guess is that the weather and big waves made for a bad situation.
Lundar/Ashern RCMP received the call about the capsized boat at 4:45 p.m. on July 16. EMS and fire were first on the scene. When RCMP arrived, they assisted EMS. The 59-year-old woman, who had been unconscious, was taken to a hospital in Winnipeg by STARS and is doing okay. There were a total of nine people on board the boat, including Hofbauer. The other seven were young females 12 to 17 years old. All were assessed on-scene and released.
RCMP said all occupants on board the boat were wearing lifejackets. The 17-foot boat was approximately 30 to 50 feet from shore when it ran into a large wave, took on too much water, and capsized. RCMP confirmed Hoffbauer has been charged under section 1007 of the Small Vessel Regulations Act for Operating a Vessel in a Careless Manner, “without due care and attention or reasonable consideration for other persons.”
“We were very fortunate that this boat capsized close to shore as this clearly could have been a very tragic incident if this had occurred farther out into the lake,” said RCMP.
Welchenko has helped rescue people from the lake before and said he’s good in situations like that, able to remain calm and collected.
“I’m sure if anyone else was in the water they would have helped,” he said. “I was just there at the right time. The rope on my boat broke for a reason.”
