Heart of Gold collides with a have sunk and capsized fishing dory at
aproximately 10:15 PM Thursday Evening. 30-40 minutes earlier, the dory
had been struck by a large motor yacht, probably a trawler. The trawler
did not stop. Additional details are as follows:

1) A proper watch in this case would have required me to stand at the
bow, not something done while passing stepping stone alone at night.
There are often a few fishing boats there, but I was not in the strip
where they anchor. It was dark, there was chop and the underside of the
capsized vessel was red. Essentially black on black and I'm surprised I
could see it at all in the final moments before impact.

2) The victims were close enough to see (and I could easily hear one).
They were within a hundred feet of my boat. I did throw my lifering
with attached line into the water, but didn't remember doing it.

3) Heart of Gold was raised and the cause of the sinking was not the
impact at the bow. The impact was pretty violent and this made the
dripless packing rubber cover fail. The surveyor at the scene also
suggested that my prop fouled hard on debris when I motored off as
there is also prop damage.

4) The victim with the crushed head was not hit by my boat. The initial
capsizing of the fishing rental was caused by a hit-and-run by a large
trawler that never stopped. The survivor gamely hung onto his friend,
not knowing he was dead. Afterwards he said he was moments from
drowning as he did not have a vest. The Heart of Gold impact ended up
saving his life.

5) According to the survivor, I helped him aboard via the swimplatform.
I then pulled in the lifering and threw it to his friend. When he made
no motion towards it and didn't respond to my calls, I dove in after
him. A moment later I swam back (having discovered his awful condition)
and reboarded the boat. My genoa was furled, but neither I nor the
survivor recall when I did that. I then motored back at top speed after
sending a second distress message on channel 16 and finally getting a
response. I also activated a flashing beacon on my masthead according
to the survivor, but I don't remember doing that either.

Now. What did I do wrong?

RB
35s5
NY