Teen safely stops runaway boat speeding in circles on New Hampshire’s largest lake

GILFORD, NH — An empty, runaway boat circling New Hampshire’s largest lake was brought to a safe stop by a teenager jumping from a watercraft.

Rich Bono, who captured the events on video, said he was on the dock at Smith Cove in Lake Winnipesaukee on Wednesday when he heard a commotion in what is normally a calm, no-boating zone.

“I can hear an engine revving, and I looked to the end of the dock in the direction of the sound and saw a boat circling, circling, circling, and there was nobody in it,” he said. “That’s clearly not good.”

Bono later learned that the boat’s driver, a sailing instructor, had reached into the water to retrieve a tennis ball that was being used to teach a lesson when one of the students’ sailboats capsized. The sailboat’s mast struck the motorboat’s throttle, causing the instructor to fall overboard and the boat to spiral.

Brady Procon, 17, jumped on the back of his neighbor’s water scooter. They were pulling past the runaway boat, and Procon jumped on and turned off the engine.

“Brady was a hero,” Bono said in an interview Monday.

Although several children were in sailboats and other vessels nearby, no one was injured and no property was damaged, Bono said.

“That boat was electrified, full throttle,” he said. “Engines on boats are like meat grinders, they’re not very forgiving when someone gets hit.”

Procon, who will be joining the U.S. Navy in the fall, told WMUR-TV the experience was both scary and fun.

“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said.