The catamaran the men were riding on flipped during rough seas.
/ Joel Allen
HORRY COUNTY -- Horry County police have identified the two men whose catamaran capsized off the coast just south of Apache Pier Thursday night. Both men are reported to be unhurt.
The police report says Giuseppe Chillico, 49, of Myrtle Beach, and Keith Crook, 49, of Beckley, West Virginia, were pulled out of the water on the south end of the beach in Briarcliffe Acres just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
They were treated at the scene and released to their families.
The boat beached itself a few hundred yards from the spot where the men were rescued.
The report says Chillico and Crook told police that they were sailing off the coast of Myrtle Beach when the sea started to get rough, so they decided to head back to shore, but the 19-foot boat they were sailing in overturned and they were thrown from it.
According to the police report, ocean swells were reaching 6 to 8 feet shortly after the boat capsized.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Horry County police and North Myrtle Beach Fire Rescue responded to the reports of an overturned boat off the coast just south of Apache Pier, but during the search the Coast Guard helicopter had to leave the scene after a green laser was pointed into the aircraft.
He said that a green laser was shone off the Apache Pier and that the Coast Guard, in return, cast a spotlight and saw an individual running, but no arrest was made.
Chillico and Crook were wearing life vests when they were found in chest-deep water off the beach in Briarcliffe. The men "were okay, but very tired. Both victims had swallowed a lot of sea water and started to vomit," the police report said.
