3 rescued from sinking boat off Moriches Inlet, officials say

Two men and a 14-year-old boy aboard a sinking boat were rescued Wednesday night in ocean waters off East Moriches by the U.S. Coast Guard and Suffolk police, authorities said.

The three safely boarded a Coast Guard vessel shortly before their 30-foot boat began dipping beneath the waves, said Petty Officer Jonathan Cinquegrana of Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound.

Boat owner Brian Buchrieser, 50, of East Setauket, his teenage son and their friend, Vito Carnazza, 49, had their life jackets on and did not need medical attention, Suffolk police said.

They called 911 when water began filling the Wellcraft vessel at about 5:10 p.m., roughly two miles south of the inlet, the Coast Guard said.

“Why it took on water, we’re not sure,” Cinquegrana said.

The boaters and the Coast Guard were communicating the entire time, as police dispatched a helicopter and a boat, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary sent up a fixed-wing plane, Cinquegrana said.

Suffolk police said its aviation officers spotted the boat south of the Moriches Inlet and guided Coast Guard officers to it.

After boarding the Coast Guard vessel, the three boaters were transferred to a police vessel, which took them to a marina on Patchogue River, police said.

The Coast Guard said it tried to remove water from the boat but eventually issued a safety marine information bulletin, scheduled to broadcast hourly until the vessel is salvaged.

With Mark Harrington