Missing Port Townsend boater found dead on Whidbey Island

A Port Townsend-area boater was found dead on Whidbey Island after a fast-moving search that stretched from Point Wilson to island beaches and brought together crews on land, in the air and on the water. The 65-year-old man was last seen Thursday evening in a 12-foot vessel near the point, a familiar and exposed stretch of water where trouble can spread quickly through Admiralty Inlet.

A little before 7:45 p.m., watchstanders received a possible man-overboard report after the dinghy was spotted empty and drifting. Another boater later found the vessel and towed it to Port Townsend Marina, while responders began searching the shoreline and nearby waters for the missing man. By Friday afternoon, a beach walker on Whidbey Island found his body, ending the urgent search with a fatal outcome.

The response drew in the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the Island County Sheriff’s Office and coroner, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Jefferson Search and Rescue, and the Royal Canadian Air Force. The scale of the effort reflected how quickly a small-boat emergency can force agencies to widen the map far beyond the place where the distress first began.

Crews spent roughly 17 hours searching and covered more than 715 miles, underscoring the reach required when a boater disappears in open water near the entrance to Puget Sound. What started near Point Wilson became a regional rescue operation that touched Jefferson County, Island County and waters that require constant coordination between local deputies, marine responders and federal crews.

The case remained under investigation. Even with the tragic ending, the search highlighted a basic reality for boaters and families around Whidbey, Port Townsend and the wider North Sound: a small vessel in rough or uncertain conditions can become an all-hands emergency in minutes, and the window for finding someone alive may close before a shoreline search is complete.