Multiple rescue agencies searched on Sunday for a man who went missing Saturday night in the Hoover Reservoir.
Crews set up a staging area at a reservoir entrance along Red Bank Road in Westerville.
The small sailboat hasn’t moved much from the spot where it crashed onto shore. Belongings from the two men who took it out on the Hoover Reservoir Saturday night are still in it.
“The person that we're currently searching for, got out of the boat and pushed the boat off of what they were stuck on,” Joe Ponzi said.
Genoa Township Fire Department Deputy Chief Joe Ponzi responded to the emergency on the water to search for a man overboard. The frantic call came in around 9 p.m.
"I'm on Hoover Dam, I'm in a sail boat. There's no power. My friend I think is overboard,” the caller said.
Ponzi says two men had been sailing the reservoir. On their way to a dock the motor lost power and the boat drifted to a shallow area and got caught. One of the men tried to free it, but could not get back on the boat.
"So he continued to hang on to the side of the boat as they drifted. At some point in time lost his grip,” Ponzi said.
Ponzi says the person in the boat couldn’t hear his friend anymore.
In the daylight rescue crews searched 3 miles of water with boats and sonar equipment. Dive teams with Genoa Township and Columbus Police went underwater.
Ponzi says he doesn’t know why the men decided to go for a sail in the dark.
"If they had just had life jackets. A life jacket probably would have made a life and death difference for this gentleman,” Ponzi said.
Genoa and Berlin Townships, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Columbus Police Department all assisted in the recovery efforts.
Officials tell 10TV the search will resume Monday morning.
