RCMP say they are not ruling out foul play in the death of a 40-year-old who was on board a sailboat that went aground.

The sailboat went into rocks on the shore south of Courtenay on Monday just after 3 p.m.

Comox Valley RCMP received a report of a sailboat running aground at the end of Argyle Road in Union Bay. Search and rescue technicians dispatched by the Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre and Comox Valley RCMP responded, locating a man and a woman in the water.

The woman was unresponsive at the scene. Both were transported by B.C. Ambulance to St. Joseph’s hospital in Comox.

RCMP told CHEK News Tuesday that the pair are known to police, foul play has not been ruled out, and that the 44-year-old man was initially arrested because he was unco-operative and intoxicated in public. The Courtenay man was later released.

The woman’s name has not been released at her family’s request.

As part of the rescue attempt an RCAF Cormorant helicopter was dispatched from Comox as well as a vessel from the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Unit 60 and a marine section auxiliary training vessel.

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