Missing plug sinks boat, strands three men

WESTERLY, R.I. --A Coast Guard crew rescued three Connecticut men Friday after their boat capsized a mile offshore because it was missing a plug to keep out the water.

The plug was missing from the 17-foot aluminum boat either before the men left shore or it fell out shortly afterward, said Robert Ballou, a spokesman for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

"This looks to us like a very simple accident," Ballou said.

Each man was wearing a life jacket when the boat flipped off Misquamicut Beach, and they clung to the vessel until help arrived, said Kelly Turner, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

Local authorities reported the accident to the Coast Guard around 9:45 a.m., Turner said. A rescue boat from the Coast Guard's Point Judith Station reached the men 40 minutes later.

The boaters -- Windell Walker, 47, of Bridgeport, Conn., Joe Hall, 59, of Naugatuck, Conn., and Paul St. Germain, 59, of Prospect, Conn. -- were taken to Westerly Hospital, where they were checked for hypothermia.

All three men were released from the hospital by the afternoon.