A 68-year-old central Wisconsin man died Wednesday in a sailing mishap when he fell off his 42-foot sailboat and drowned in Lake Superior near Washburn.
Stanley Szczytko, of Marshfield, Wis., apparently became entangled in a jib line on the sailboat and “was pulled overboard” in the area between Houghton Point and Long Island, the Bayfield County Sheriff’s Office reported in a news release. Szczytko was not wearing a personal flotation device.
A U.S. Coast Guard crew located Szczytko and brought him to the Washburn Marina, where emergency medical personnel unsuccessfully attempted to revive him.
The 911 call was placed by a woman on the boat just before 4 p.m., reporting a man in the water and unresponsive. Coast Guard crews located Szczytko within 24 minutes of the call.
The incident remained under investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Bayfield County Sheriff's Office.
