A 70-year-old Illinois man died and another man was rescued after the sailboat they were in collided with Wolf Trap Lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay off the coast of Mathews.

Officer Kenneth Freeman with the Virginia Marine Police said the accident occurred just before sunrise on Thursday, Nov. 14, and the cause of the collision is under investigation.

Jonathan Grannis of Winnetka, Illinois, and a passenger had left from Baltimore and were on their way to Florida, where Grannis’s 36-foot sailboat, the Red Mitten, was to be berthed, said Freeman. 

Chief Joshua Menges of Milford Haven Coast Guard Station said that Cape Charles Coast Guard Station arrived at the scene of the accident first and transported Grannis to the Eastern Shore. The boat was de-masted in the accident, he said. Donna Price, district administrator with the Tidewater District of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said the cause of death was blunt trauma to the chest.

Milford Haven transported the ...