A 79-year-old former reserve deputy sheriff has been named as the person killed when a family gathering aboard a recreational boat turned into disaster near Alcatraz Island, as the Coast Guard called off its search for three others still unaccounted for.
Clifford Joseph Boisa of Sutter County died Tuesday afternoon after the three-level vessel he was aboard went down in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay with 20 people on board. The Sutter County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Boisa had served as a reserve deputy since 1987.
Sixteen people were pulled from the water safely, three of them taken to nearby hospitals, but three passengers remain missing as of Wednesday. Coast Guard officials said they would suspend active search efforts at sunset after nearly a full day of scouring the bay.
950 Square Nautical Miles Searched, Coast Guard Says
Coast Guard Sector San Francisco’s commanding officer told reporters crews had “completely saturated” more than 950 nautical square miles during the roughly 23-hour operation, and credited nearby boaters who jumped in to help pull people from the water before official rescue teams arrived.
Officials said it’s possible the three missing passengers are still trapped inside the sunken 49-foot boat, which now sits about 130 feet under the surface. Crews plan to send down an underwater drone to locate the wreck before deciding on next steps for recovery.
According to officials, the group aboard was an extended family who had gathered on the water for a memorial, intending to scatter the ashes of a loved one in the bay. Everyone aboard was said to be either related or a close family friend, and no children were among the passengers. The three still missing have not been publicly identified.
Reported Fire Turned Out to Be a Sinking Boat
Fire officials said crews were first sent out around 3:35 p.m. local time after reports came in of a boat fire roughly 600 yards from Alcatraz, between the old prison and the Golden Gate Bridge. But when responders reached the scene, there was no fire — instead, they found the vessel already capsized and mostly underwater as it made its way back from Angel Island.
A marine unit reportedly found only the boat’s upper deck still visible above the waterline. Its engine was reportedly still running, with fuel leaking into the bay around it. One person was pulled from the water directly, while the rest of those rescued had been trapped in the vessel’s top compartment before crews got them out.
Investigators have not confirmed what caused the boat to go down, but say they’re looking at the vessel’s stability along with weather and water conditions at the time. The working theory, officials say, is that the boat took on a wave, filled with water, flipped, and sank — though that account still hasn’t been finalized. Sudden wind shifts and rough summer conditions are common hazards on San Francisco Bay.
“People Banging at the Windows,” Witnesses Say
Local fishermen who raced toward the sinking boat described chaos as people tried to escape the vessel before it went under.
“There was even people banging at the windows as they were like filing out, and as soon as people were hitting the water, we were just trying to pick them up as fast as we can,” one witness said. “Some people didn’t even have life vests on and they were drowning.”
Before scaling back the operation, search crews used boats, helicopters, thermal cameras, tide charts and drift modeling in the hunt for the missing passengers.
The boat had reportedly launched from an area near St. Francis Yacht Club. The exact cause of the sinking remains under investigation.