Nathan Carman tells of boat repairs just before fishing expedition

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PROVIDENCE -- Nathan Carman replaced a bilge pump and removed trim tabs from his 31-foot boat the very day he and his mother disembarked from Ram Point Marina for a fishing expedition in September 2016. The removal left four half-dollar sized holes just above the waterline that he filled with epoxy putty, testimony showed.

"I had a free day ... removing the trim tabs was one of the things I wanted to do," Carman, 26, of Vernon, Vermont, said Thursday.

Why? asked David J. Farrell, a lawyer representing the boat insurance companies.

"I reasoned that they were probably pushing the bow down," he said, theorizing that it would improve speed and fuel efficiency.

Exacting and articulate, if expressionless and often monotone, Carman took the stand in the trial into his bid to recoup $85,000 in insurance money for the sunken vessel. The insurers -- Boat Owners Association of the United States and National Liability & Fire Insurance Co. -- have denied his claim, alleging that he made faulty repairs that led to Chicken Pox's sinking far offshore in the Block Canyon. His mother, 54-year-old Linda Carman, was believed to be aboard and is presumed dead. Carman was found on a life raft seven days after he said the vessel went down.

Carman's much-anticipated testimony came as his aunts are trying to block him from inheriting possibly millions of dollars of his mother's money. Their lawyers have been in the courtroom throughout the trial, taking notes and conferring with the insurers' lawyer as the case plays out before U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr.

Farrell asked how Carman removed the trim tabs.

"The easiest way to do that was leaning over the transom," he said.

A boater had testified being stunned to see Carman leaning over the back of the boat with a hole saw.

Carman said he was using a drill bit to "roughen up" existing holes.

Shouldn't Carman have sealed the holes with fiberglass patches and resin? Farrell asked.

"I suppose," Carman said.

David Farrell, representing boat insurers, pressed Carman of whether he ever tested the boat's two bilge pumps to ensure they were working.

"I would test them by hearing the motor run," Carman said.

Carman would later open the hatch to find that same pump entirely submerged in the moments he said led up to the boat's sinking.

Farrell asked Carman if he considered himself a genius.

"I have no idea," Carman said, adding that his mother told him he had a 140 IQ.

Carman also acknowledged holding only two jobs briefly in his life, as a dish washer at a private school and working for FedEx.

-- kmulvane@ providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7417

On Twitter: @kmulvane

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