Searchers resume their hunt today for the body of a man whose memory was celebrated at a Kelowna park on Sunday.
Members of local search-and-rescue teams suspended their efforts to find Cole Barr‘s remains in Okanagan Lake on the weekend because boat traffic was too heavy. They‘ve recalculated where he likely fell off a patio boat last Monday night and plan to search an area farther north, near Summerhill Winery on Chute Lake Road.
The volunteers sent a submersible to the lake bottom on Friday to zoom in on two objects that appeared on a sonar scan. The targets, both deeper than 200 feet, turned out to be piles of rocks.
Search leaders asked the owners of the patio boat to re-launch the vessel on Friday afternoon. Using the same speed, they re-traced the movements the boat made after Barr fell overboard after 8 p.m.
"We had a time reference regarding how long it took them to get back to the El Dorado boat launch from where they were searching and where the accident occurred," said Rob Braun of Central Okanagan Search and Rescue.
"As a result, we have a new search area."
Four search boats and the RCMP zodiac are expected to start a grid search of the new area at 9 a.m. today. They‘re equipped with a remote operating vehicle, two underwater cameras and side-scan sonar.
The choppy waves made by dozens of pleasure boats on the lake Saturday and Sunday would have complicated the recovery effort, said Braun. The equipment is towed under the search boats as the crew analyzes images on laptop computers.
"If the sonar and camera are bouncing up and down, it makes things difficult," Braun said.
Barr was standing at the front of the patio boat, built on two pontoons, as he and four friends motored back to the El Dorado boat launch from Rattlesnake Island at 8 or 8:30 p.m. Monday.
The operator abruptly slowed the boat and Barr fell in front of the vessel. The other men heard a bump, as if he‘d struck one of the pontoons. He was floating on the surface once the boat passed over him but sank from view by the time anyone could reach him.
The men drove in circles for an hour before giving up and returning to shore.
Barr, who worked at Deviate Boardshop in Kelowna, was wake-surfing and fishing with his buddies before the tragedy. Friends and family hosted an outdoor gathering in his honour at Bertram Creek Park on Sunday afternoon.
Searchers are asking anyone who saw the patio boat on the lake last week to contact them at 250-212-5907. Top of Page
