Fisherman saved from capsized boat

Another man in the boat, George Reutov, died in the accident, said Doug Pedersen, a retired Kodiak fisherman who climbed on board the overturned 38-foot fishing vessel to try to pull the men to safety.

Kodiak harbormaster Marty Owen said he saw the boat leaving Kodiak at about 10 a.m.

"I was concerned because the Tustumena, the ferry boat, the 300-foot ferry boat, (was) sitting at the dock because it was too rough to go, and there goes this little Russian boat, the Velocity," he said.

Reutov owned the boat, according to public records. Pedersen and Owen said they believe the man who was rescued was Reutov's relative. He was hospitalized in Kodiak as of late Saturday, the Coast Guard said. Hospital employees said he was in stable condition.

Acquaintances said the men are Russian Old Believers. The accident comes five weeks after Old Believer fishing communities were stunned by a plane crash near Kodiak that killed five fishermen and a pilot.

It was unclear Saturday if Reutov is related to any victims of the plane crash. When a reporter called his listed phone number, a woman answered, crying. She said she was his wife and referred questions to a family member.

The boat capsized about 200 yards offshore, in the Mill Bay area, said Coast Guard public affairs specialist Richard Brahm.

The Coast Guard received an emergency signal from the boat at about 11:35 a.m. Saturday, Brahm said.

Pedersen lives nearby, and saw what looked like a house-shaped object bobbing near the reef. It was the stern end of a boat floating upside down.

He recognized the color. It belonged to a friend - George Reutov.

Pedersen said he's been to Reutov's home on Afognak Island, and that Reutov and his wife came to see Pedersen's garden in Kodiak.

"The Russians are kind of known for their fearlessness you know. They fish in weather other - us guys, don't," Pedersen said.

He said that as far as he knows, the Velocity wasn't on a fishing trip Saturday, but headed to Afognak Island.

Kodiak fisherman Lance Parker saw the rescue, which he said included friends or family members of the boaters, a Coast Guard helicopter, firefighters and others.

"The vessel was adrift in the bay for about an hour before it went aground at the head of the bay, up against a rocky bluff," he said.

Pedersen said rescuers had to wait until the tide would go out to run out to the boat, jump up and shimmy on top. The surf pummeled and jarred the hard-to-reach boat.

A knock or banging could be heard inside the boat, according to the Coast Guard.

Someone was alive.

Rescuers used a heavy-duty chain saw to slice through the fiberglass.

"One of the smaller fellas that was there, he was a Russian, a relative, and he crawled down in there and brought the occupants over close, where I could reach down and grab and haul them out of there," Pedersen said.

There was diesel fuel on the surface of the water inside the boat, he said.

The two men trapped in the hull wore survival suits, but Reutov had died.

The other man appeared hypothermic, and vomited what smelled like diesel fuel, Pedersen said. An ambulance took the man to the local hospital.

Parker called what he saw a survival story.

"It's likely that this person survived in an overturned fishing vessel in 20-foot seas for two hours before getting rescued," he said.

Find Kyle Hopkins' online at adn.com/contact/khopkins or call him at 257-4334.

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