'No Power, No Radio, No Anchor, No Nothin': Barstool Sports Founder Dave Portnoy Rescued by U.S. Coast Guard

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is happy to be back on dry land.

On Monday, July 15 Portnoy, 47, revealed in a video on X that he was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after he decided to take his mom “on a boat ride” off Nantucket, Massachusetts and his vessel suddenly lost power.

“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 recalled.

He went on to explain that the strong winds blew his boat out of the harbor and that he had to try to steer it to “not to crash into the ships.” He said he eventually used a flare gun to send a “distress signal” but “still nothing” happened. 

Portnoy said after “screaming” for “help” he eventually caught the attention of a girl in a what appeared to be a “rowboat” who passed by. She then climbed aboard his boat and he was able to use her working radio to call the Coast Guard to his location. 

“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.” 

Portnoy added that because of the incident, he “may never go on a boat again.”

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In response to his post, 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 also 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.

“We are glad that he used distressed signals and applaud the Good Samaritan for having a VHF radio ready to hail the Coast Guard,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard First District told WFXT.

The incident comes a few weeks after the 47-year-old businessman revealed that he’d been diagnosed with cancer, which he described as not being “the serious kind.” The New York Post reported that Portnoy had skin cancer, although he didn’t clarify what kind in his video.

“I’ve got a scar going all the way down my neck. I look like Frankenstein,” Portnoy shared on X, before adding that he was going to be alright. “Yeah, I’m gonna make it.”

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