• Home
• News
• Latest News

BEACH HAVEN — Alan Olivier was known as “Big Al” to friends, who now mourn the 55-year-old who drowned after his boat sank Friday in Little Egg Harbor Bay.

“He was my best friend. I was in shock Friday. His nickname was ‘Big Al.’ He was a big guy,” John Mangino, of Stafford Township, said of Olivier, who loved to fish and ride his personal watercraft.

Olivier, of Tuckerton, was fishing in a 16-foot, open-top boat Friday morning when he called his mother and said it was taking on water, a State Police spokesman said. The phone went dead, and his mother called 911 at 11:47 a.m. and reported his approximate location.

Rescue boats were sent to the scene by the State Marine Police and the Coast Guard. Olivier was pulled from the water by another boater, whose name has not been released. The boater transported Olivier to a Coast Guard rescue boat, officials said.

Olivier was then taken to the Beach Haven Yacht Club, where emergency medical personnel tried to revive him but were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at 12:50 p.m., police said.

“Damn, and I put the motor on that boat,” Mangino said. “This summer I put it on. It was a Garvey. He used to have a speed boat, but I told him, ‘I’m not putting a speed boat motor on this.’”

Mangino said George S. Smith Jr., the commodore of the Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club, where he and Olivier were members, called Friday to inform him of his friend’s death.

“We were supposed to go to the Moose (lodge) on Thanksgiving Day together, but his truck was broke down. So he took his boat from Tuckerton to Beach Haven to his mom’s for dinner. It was a straight shot across the bay,” Mangino said. “He stayed at his mother’s, and on Friday morning he left to go back to Tuckerton.”

That’s when Olivier’s boat began taking on water.

“He was one of a kind,” said Maggie O’Neill, Olivier’s girlfriend of 10 years. “Of course tragic accidents are happening all the time, but a mother losing a son is inconceivable. His mother is one of the most incredible women I know.”

State Marine Police Sgt. Valentino Borrelli said Sunday evening that police are waiting for Olivier’s toxicology report to come back.

“We’re pretty certain it was an accidental drowning,” Borrelli said. 

On Friday, a helicopter located the boat so crews could return to remove it from the bay, he said.

Towboat US removed the boat from the bay Sunday afternoon and took it to a local marina, according to police. 

Police were at the scene Sunday afternoon to photograph the boat, Borrelli said.

“We had to be there when it was taken out of the water because we needed to see why the boat sunk,” he said.

But even with an examination of the vessel Sunday afternoon, the cause of the sinking has not been determined, he added. 

Contact Donna Weaver:

609-226-9198

DWeaver@pressofac.com

No comments have been posted. Be the first poster!

PressofAtlanticCity.com offers everyone the opportunity to comment on published stories. However, it is impractical for editors to screen all comments.
If you believe a comment is offensive, please click on the abuse-reporting link and your objection will be considered by an editor. We encourage participants to use their real names, but inoffensive screen names are acceptable. Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them.
Please post responsibly. Do not post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy.
Be polite. Don’t hate. Users who don’t play by the rules may be blocked from participating.

View our full terms of service and privacy agreement

Click here to report a comment as abusive.

You must login to post a new comment