Steve Sutton
Well-known member
David Boys, owner of Mallard Marine and the maker of the MARSH RAT marsh boat, died yesterday in a hunting related accident while hunting Brant near Tillamook, Oregon...
Reports at this time are sketchy, and some are conflicting, but it appears that David was hunting with Worth Matthewson for Brant. They had used a large boat for main access but were hunting out of Marsh Rats. Boys and Matthewson were seperated in the gale force winds when Boys set out after a crippled Brant. Boys was wearing a life jacket.
Matthewson swamped his Marsh Rat twice on the way back to the big boat and then grounded the boat on the falling tide. As I read the reports Worth then paddled to the local Coast Guard Station, (no small feat in the small boat and the high winds), to report David missing.
Seachers found David's body at approx. 8 p.m. His body temperature was 80 degrees and he could not be resucitated. No additional reports were made as to Worth's condition so I am assuming that other than be heartbroken at the loss of a good friend that he is o.k.
For those that did not know David he was one of the best known of the NW Waterfowlers. A near permenant fixture on the marshes and rivers of NW Oregon and likely to show up just about anywere else in the area as well. While I didn't know him that well I do know that the man was a WATERFOWLER in the truest sense of the word and his loss to our small community is a tragic one.
Having lost a best friend to a drowning I know its a natural tendancy to state, or think, "what were they doing there", or "why did they go given the weather"? We've all done things we later would say that we shouldn't have, and we have all laughed nervously at our narrow escapes, saying to ourselves that "the next time I'll sit by the fire when the weather is that bad". Inevitably we find ourselves on the water again, facing into that freshening wind, smiling, and thanking whoever we credit for our ability to accept that opportunity to be there. To do anything less would be foriegn to us.
Sadly, at some point, members of our community don't return from those forays to the marshes that we love so much. Its hurts the worse when we know those people and even more deeply to those who were close friends of the ones that don't come back.
To Dave's family, and close friends, my heart is with you tonight, and it will be a long time before I can stand facing into a wind without thinking of the stories that I have heard Dave's friends tell about him.
You'll be missed Dave.
Steve
Reports at this time are sketchy, and some are conflicting, but it appears that David was hunting with Worth Matthewson for Brant. They had used a large boat for main access but were hunting out of Marsh Rats. Boys and Matthewson were seperated in the gale force winds when Boys set out after a crippled Brant. Boys was wearing a life jacket.
Matthewson swamped his Marsh Rat twice on the way back to the big boat and then grounded the boat on the falling tide. As I read the reports Worth then paddled to the local Coast Guard Station, (no small feat in the small boat and the high winds), to report David missing.
Seachers found David's body at approx. 8 p.m. His body temperature was 80 degrees and he could not be resucitated. No additional reports were made as to Worth's condition so I am assuming that other than be heartbroken at the loss of a good friend that he is o.k.
For those that did not know David he was one of the best known of the NW Waterfowlers. A near permenant fixture on the marshes and rivers of NW Oregon and likely to show up just about anywere else in the area as well. While I didn't know him that well I do know that the man was a WATERFOWLER in the truest sense of the word and his loss to our small community is a tragic one.
Having lost a best friend to a drowning I know its a natural tendancy to state, or think, "what were they doing there", or "why did they go given the weather"? We've all done things we later would say that we shouldn't have, and we have all laughed nervously at our narrow escapes, saying to ourselves that "the next time I'll sit by the fire when the weather is that bad". Inevitably we find ourselves on the water again, facing into that freshening wind, smiling, and thanking whoever we credit for our ability to accept that opportunity to be there. To do anything less would be foriegn to us.
Sadly, at some point, members of our community don't return from those forays to the marshes that we love so much. Its hurts the worse when we know those people and even more deeply to those who were close friends of the ones that don't come back.
To Dave's family, and close friends, my heart is with you tonight, and it will be a long time before I can stand facing into a wind without thinking of the stories that I have heard Dave's friends tell about him.
You'll be missed Dave.
Steve