Bad anchoring results in three deaths - Gulf of Mexico.

9:00 AM Sat 28 Mar 2009 GMT

'Nick Scuyler, sole survivor, clings to the overturned boat as he is approached by Coastguard' .

A 21ft boat carrying four men capsized last month because it was improperly anchored, a Florida agency reported Friday.

The four men were on a fishing trip when they went overboard on February 28, only one surviving until rescued.

The latest report enumerated a number of errors in the way the boat was handled at anchor that caused the capsize.

Previous reports showed that the men had not taken an EPIRB with them in spite of friends' advice that they should, thus delaying the rescue.

One of the men, Nick Schuyler, survived the incident by holding on to the capsized boat for many hours in the ocean. The incident happened 35 miles west of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The report said the men were unable to pull up the anchor of their boat to head back to port. One of the men, Marquis Cooper, tried to rev the boat forward to free the anchor, but the 21-foot single engine craft then capsized.

The report said that the 'improper anchoring' to a portside bracket, the attempt to throttle the boat forward to release the anchor,and the 'failure to leave enough slack anchor line to compensate for top-water Gulf conditions' caused the incident.

Schuyler told his rescuers that the boat was anchored in the evening when it was overturned by waves during a storm. He told them that all four men were clinging to the boat for a time, but became separated.

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