Stool Presidente—or Captain Dave— has checked in.
On Monday, July 15, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, 47, revealed in a video on X that he had been rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after he decided to take his mom on a boat ride off Nantucket, Massachusetts, and his boat suddenly lost power and went adrift.
“Your boys almost lost Captain Dave today. Captain Dave almost was lost to the ocean, mother ocean.”
“Captain Dave unhooked himself to the buoy before he turned the boat on to make sure the boat wasn’t dead. Well no power, no radio, no anchor, no nothing. Heavy heavy winds. Next thing you know Captain Dave is lost at sea,” Portnoy continued.
“Next thing you know, Captain Dave is lost at sea,” he recalled in the two-minute clip. “[The boat’s] just blowing, [I’m] trying not to crash into ships in the harbor.” He said he eventually used a flare gun to send a “distress signal” but “still nothing” happened.
We almost lost Captain Dave to mother ocean today. Thank you to the #uscoastguard for saving Captain Dave’s life. pic.twitter.com/hF5gYbmkSY
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 15, 2024
Fortunately, a woman in a “rowboat” nearby noticed him and climbed aboard his boat. She then used her working radio to call the Coast Guard to his location.
“She boards Captain Dave’s vessel. She said, ‘Can I make a TikTok of you?’ I said, ‘No time for TikToks,’” he said. “She goes, ‘Well, I don’t have my phone on me anyways. [But] her radio works [and she] calls in the Coast Guard.”
“[I’m] out at sea going back and forth rocking, [thinking] my life is over,” he explained in the video. “Thankfully the Coast Guard, God bless… tied me up, brought me back… Captain Dave lives to tell another tale.”
In response to his video, the First Coast Guard District of Boston, Massachusetts, wrote, “You’re welcome, Dave. Tell Miss Peaches we said hi and remember to boat safe! #SemperParatus.”
Coast Guard officials shared in a statement to local affiliate WFXT, that they received a report that a “28-foot pleasure boat” belonging to Portnoy had broke free from its mooring buoys. Officials said that service members from U.S Coast Guard Station Brant Point, who had been conducting training exercises at the time, had “diverted” to help tow Portnoy back to the harbor.
Despite the reminder “to boat safe”, Portnoy claimed he may reconsider going back on his boat after the stressful incident.
“It’s a dangerous game, the sea’s angry, my friends,” he said. “Captain Dave may never go in the boat again.”
