Powerboat Flips & Sinks On Lake Of The Ozarks, Nearby Boaters Pull Captain From The Water

A powerboat flipped near the 20 Mile Marker of Lake of the Ozarks on the morning of Sunday, July 23, and—incredibly—the boat's single occupant walked away nearly unscathed.

On Sunday morning at around 8:28 a.m., Jo Kremsreiter of Wentzville and Matt Swain of O’Fallon were heading to Paradise Tropical Restaurant for breakfast, traveling west down the main channel around the 19MM, when they saw a go-fast boat to their left. According to Kremsreiter, the boat appeared to be going around 45-50 mph and appeared to be making a wide arc – probably to avoid other boats and their wake. As they approached the 20 MM with the boat on their port side, it happened. 

“Out of nowhere, it spun and moved in ways that didn’t seem physically possible,” Kremsreiter said. “We immediately started heading toward the crash and called 911.”

When the men neared the scene, the powerboat was sinking with the cabin side down, and the scene looked bleak. The boat appeared to have broken in half: the bow was sticking straight up out of the water, and another section of the boat was floating nearby, having separated from the main hull. 

“At that point, we didn’t think there would be any survivors,” Kremsreiter said. 

But as they came closer to the wreck, they saw the driver bobbing in the water with a life jacket on near the main hull. The captain was conscious and confirmed he had been the only one on the boat. He also told them that other than some lower back pain, he was fine. A few seconds after Kremsreiter's boat arrived, the go-fast boat's bow quietly slipped below the surface, and the boat sank completely. 

“[He] mentioned how happy he was to have the life jacket on and was using the lanyard kill switch; he credited his dad for that advice,” Kremsreiter said. 

According to Kremsreiter, the captain was worried about leaving trash in the water after the sinking, so Kremsreiter, Swain and the captain all helped to clean up the water. Kremsreiter also credited another boater — a man on a neon-yellow and green Sea Doo — who helped pick up debris as well.

“[You] gotta love this boating community,” Kremsreiter said, “where a guy is concerned about littering the water after being in a disaster.”