Boat Accident Embroils Local Firm In Controversy Investigation To Continue Into Fatal Accident Involving Spokane-Made Boat

Salvage crews in Michigan Monday retrieved a Spokane-made boat involved in an accident that claimed the lives of four duck hunters.

An examination of the unusual 18-foot boat could help answer questions that have swirled around Outlaw Marine Inc. since the accident Nov. 11.

In the aftermath, some workers walked off the job at Outlaw’s Spokane Valley manufacturing plant last Thursday.

Company owner Jim Cripe said employees considering formation of a competing business used the accident to encourage others to bolt Outlaw.

Cripe also owns a companion company, Outlaw Decoys Inc., that makes and distributes decoys and other bird-hunting gear.

Both companies are based in Spokane.

U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Steve Betters said the boat involved in the accident, an Outlaw 18, was found 22 miles down water from the area on Saginaw Bay where the victims were hunting Nov. 11.

The bodies of the accident victims, all from Midland, Mich., were found last Monday by rescuers from the Coast Guard and area sheriff’s departments.

But the boat disappeared, causing some to speculate that the uniquely designed craft had sunk in fierce weather that drove many hunters off the large, shallow arm of Lake Huron.

Betters said the craft was found afloat, but overturned. Coast Guard and local officials will scrutinize the hull when a salvage barge brings the boat into Bay City, he said.

Cripe said he was reassured by the initial sighting. “We have no reason to believe the boat is faulty,” he said.

Cripe said he had talked with the widow of the boat owner, Jim Ayre, who did not blame Outlaw for the accident. “She blames no one,” he said.

Ironically, an Ayre testimonial on the Outlaw 18 is included in the company’s latest catalog. Cripe said Ayre received the fifth version shipped from the Outlaw plant on East Marietta.

He said the boat, which features high sides that lend it the appearance of a lowslung amphibious tank with an open top, took a year and a half to develop.

As the manufacturer, Outlaw was responsible for building and certifying the boat to Coast Guard standards, Cripe said, adding that he did the testing and certification himself.

He said the conditions on Saginaw Bay at the time of the accident were beyond any that a small boat could be designed to withstand. Winds were in excess of 30 miles per hour and waves were running from six to 10 feet, he said.

Betters and Jerry Warrington, a television reporter and hunter from Midland, confirmed that conditions were extreme.

Warrington said he was on Saginaw Bay Nov. 11, but abandoned his hunting when the already bad weather worsened and radio reports indicated potential winds of 50 mph.

“The best word to describe it is rough, very rough,” he said.

Warrington said he has worked with Cripe in the past on magazine articles about hunting. “I can’t honestly believe that Jim would sell a boat that would be less than seaworthy,” he said.

Cripe said he has received no indications from the Coast Guard that there is a problem with the Outlaw 18.

Betters said a private investigator had been retained by the families of the four victims to continue looking into the incident when the Coast Guard completes its report.

The accident and employee unrest are not Cripe’s only concerns.

On Nov. 6, Outlaw Decoys was sued in U.S. District Court by co-tenants at the Argonne Commercial Center who allegedly suffered more than $700,000 in damages from an April 12, 1994, fire.

The fire was set by an arsonist. A.W. Chesterton Co. and Cleveland Technical Center claim the fire was set in boxes and debris that Outlaw had piled outside its part of the building.

, DataTimes