Workers Quit Boat Firm After 4 Drown -- Some Employees Of Spokane Company Fear Design Flaw Contributed To Michigan Deaths

DETROIT - Workers at a Spokane boat company walked off the job last week after four duck hunters drowned while using a newly designed boat that the company had warned buyers about using pending further testing.

The employees feared the boat may have contributed to the deaths.

"The whole company walked out," Mike Phillips, graphic designer for Outlaw Marine, told The Detroit News yesterday.

Some of the company's 15 employees said they were stunned by the accident that left three men and a 13-year-old boy dead in a Saginaw Bay storm.

Company president James Cripe said only half of the employees had left, and added that he was confident most would return to their jobs.

No company official immediately returned a telephone call about whether the walkout had ended, but a telephone receptionist said she believed the employees had returned.

The hunters were on their first voyage in a brand-new boat model - the Outlaw 18. Outlaw Marine began to sell the duck-hunting boats earlier this year.

A prototype of the boat leaked in tests last summer, and the company last week warned customers not to use their new boats "until we are absolutely certain that the boat has no problems," Cripe said.

Coast Guard workers found the 18-foot boat floating capsized Sunday in southeastern Saginaw Bay, more than 20 miles from where the bodies of the hunters had been recovered a week ago.

"The second that boat is recovered, I am going to fly to Midland so I can determine what, if anything, went wrong with the boat," Cripe said.

Outlaw employees said the boat, among the first five Outlaw 18s ever shipped, lacked an owner's manual.

One employee who was not identified said he and at least four others had told Cripe they were concerned the boat might not float properly because its five seats were all on the same side.

Cripe denied having heard complaints about the boat seats, which he said were movable and do not affect flotation or balance. He confirmed he had never completed an owner's manual for the Outlaw 18.

"I've been working on that for some time," Cripe said.

The bodies of the hunters were recovered in 39-degree water, five miles from shore. They were: James Ayre, 50, a real-estate executive, former president of the Midland Area Chamber of Commerce and the owner of the Outlaw 18; Howard Swift, 43, a hospital executive; Rod Burnside, principal partner of an accounting firm, and Burnside's 13-year-old son, Brad.

Ayre's wife and friends said they wanted authorities to investigate the safety of the Outlaw 18.

The families hired a salvage company to remove the boat Sunday and are conducting their own investigation, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Will Swan. He and several other Coast Guard officials said they know of no federal investigation in progress.