By JAYSON JACOBY

No one was hurt when a three-engine jetboat carrying 13 passengers down one of the rougher rapids on the Snake River in Hells Canyon hit a rock and sank Friday afternoon.

The passengers and the two crew members on the boat, which is owned by Hells Canyon Adventures III LLC of Oxbow, got off the 40-foot aluminum vessel before it went under at Wild Sheep Rapid, said Mary DeAguero, district ranger for the Forest Service’s Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.

One passenger andquot;bumped her head,andquot; DeAguero said.

Everyone was wearing a life jacket, as the U.S. Forest Service requires for people running Wild Sheep Rapid, she said.

Hells Canyon Adventures dispatched another jetboat to pick up the passengers and haul them six miles upstream to the launch just below Hells Canyon Dam, where Friday’s trip started, DeAguero said.

The capsizing of the $220,000, 51-person-capacity jetboat was the first such incident in Hells Canyon Adventures’ 28 years of running the Snake River, said company manager Mark Yates, whose family bought the business in 2001.

andquot;Our crew did an outstanding job of making sure everyone made it safely to shore,andquot; Yates said.

He credited the boat’s captain, Gale Anderson, who has worked for Hells Canyon Adventures since 1998.

andquot;He’s a good captain,andquot; Yates said. andquot;I’m standing behind him on this.andquot;

Yates said a strong wind blowing upstream when the 3 p.m. accident occurred was andquot;kicking the water up,andquot; making it hard for Anderson to pick a proper route through the rapid.

andquot;Going downstream is the hardest maneuver to make anyway,andquot; Yates said. andquot;The water is pushing you and you have to adjust for that.andquot;

One of the boat’s three Cummins diesel six-cylinder engines apparently lost power when the vessel struck the rock, but Anderson steered the boat to within about 20 feet of the Oregon shore.

The boat’s two other engines then failed and the vessel began to take on water, DeAguero said.

Officials from the Forest Service, the Oregon State Marine Board, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the incident.

Based on a preliminary investigation, there’s no evidence that Anderson was intoxicated or otherwise impaired, she said.

andquot;There’s no fear of that,andquot; DeAguero said. andquot;It was just an accident.andquot;

Hells Canyon Adventures can continue to operate its boats on the river.

The company is one of about 25 most of which are based in Lewiston, Idaho, or Clarkston, Wash. that have Forest Service permits that entitle them to carry passengers, either on jetboats or rafts, down the Snake River between Hells Canyon Dam and Lewiston.

Hells Canyon Adventures owns jetboats and rafts, Yates said. The boat that sank Friday was on its way to pick up a group of rafters who had floated down the river earlier.

Boat:

The Forest Service limits the number of trips each company can take. Friday’s trip was an authorized one, DeAguero said.

Hells Canyon Adventures is the only jetboat operator from Baker County, according to the Forest Service.

DeAguero did not have a list of the passengers aboard the jetboat on Friday. The agency doesn’t collect those lists until the end of the boating season, she said.

Yates declined to name the passengers, though he said the list included people from Oregon, California, Oklahoma and Georgia.

Wild Sheep Rapid, about six river miles downstream from Hells Canyon Dam, is one of two especially severe stretches of whitewater in Hells Canyon, DeAguero said.

Yates ranks Wild Sheep as the canyon’s second most difficult rapid, just behind Granite Creek Rapid, which is a few miles downstream.

The river, measured just below Hells Canyon, was flowing at a rate of about 20,800 cubic feet per second (cfs) on Friday afternoon.

The rapid is andquot;pretty frothyandquot; at that level, Yates said, but like many rapids, Wild Sheep can be more dangerous when the river is lower, in part because more rocks are exposed.

In a 2006 report, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended a minimum flow of 8,500 cfs in the reach of the Snake River that includes Wild Sheep Rapid.

Yates said the blustery upstream wind was the main factor in Friday’s accident.

DeAguero said a raft guide who was scouting the rapid on Friday watched the accident.

The guide used a satellite telephone to call the Forest Service visitor center below Hells Canyon Dam about 3:30 p.m., DeAguero said.

The submerged jet boat is not in the river’s main channel, so it doesn’t pose an obstacle to other boats running the rapid, DeAguero said.

Yates said he hopes to raise the boat as soon as today, and to have it back in service within six weeks.

He said the company’s insurance will pay for repairs, but the policy won’t cover the business’ lost revenue during those six weeks.