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Two Months Too Long for Houseboat Tragedy Probe

By Ben Meisner

We are being told it will take about 2 months to complete an investigation into the Okanagan Lake boating accident that claimed the life of a young 100 MileHouse woman.  The 44 ft houseboat tipped over 70 meters off the shoreline of Kelowna's downtown.

Why two months?  Now lets see, if you have 61 young adults at 130 lbs each, a hot tub with about 1 ton of water in it  and everyone standing on one side of a houseboat that already has a center of gravity that is well above water line, you don’t have to go to Oslo to get the prize to see what was wrong. 

All that remains is to determine who was at fault. 

At a bare minimum 4 tons of weight was sitting on top of the vessel when it reared up and then turned on its side as it went down.  No surprise, especially given the fact someone had yelled from a nearby restaurant that the boat was about to tip over because it was top heavy. 

So now an investigation will be launched to find out what?  Who gave the keys to the vessel over to someone without making it painfully clear that these things do sink if they're top heavy?  That’s the reason you don’t see them in rough water. 

Was there a proper captain manning the ship?  If so, what did he do and say in the matter? 

Those questions don’t take a couple of months to find an answer. 

That, is one man's opinion.
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