SAN FRANCISCO — A memorial service on San Francisco Bay became its own tragedy Tuesday when a three-story boat carrying 20 people capsized in rough waters near Alcatraz Island, killing one person and leaving three others unaccounted for more than a day later.
The U.S. Coast Guard planned to end its search for the three missing passengers at sundown Wednesday, turning a rescue operation that spanned an area larger than Yosemite National Park into a recovery effort. There’s a “high possibility” they remain inside the boat at the bottom of the bay, though officials had yet to locate the vessel as of Wednesday afternoon, said Capt. Jared Toczko, commander of the the U.S. Coast Guard’s local sector.
State and federal officials praised the private boaters who raced to the listing vessel and helped save 16 people. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie called those good Samaritans “heroic,” saying he was “incredibly proud of the all-hands-on-deck effort” by them and emergency crews to limit the death toll.
One rescuer told television station KGO that passengers were “banging on the windows, trying to get out.” Officials described the 49-foot-long Volare as having two enclosed cabin levels beneath an upper deck shaded by a canvas top.
“The people that were bobbing in the water, we pulled them out first,” rescuer Justin Marceline told KGO. “The people in the water were elderly folks, they were conscious, but people were too tired and worn out.”
The outing — one of the bay’s worst maritime disasters in recent years — had begun as a somber trip for family members and close friends gathered for a memorial service, according to San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen.
A wave hit the Volare around 3:35 p.m. Tuesday, causing it to list to one side before rolling over, Toczko said. Around that time, the San Francisco Fire Department received a report from other boaters of a vessel in distress about 600 yards from Alcatraz, where the water is roughly 130 feet deep.
“All indications are that it happened very quickly,” said Toczko, adding that conditions provided a “very challenging environment” to save people thrown overboard.
A San Francisco police marine unit pulled a man from the water in “severe distress” and administered CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. The man was identified Wednesday as Clifford Boisa, 79, of Sutter County, according to the San Francisco County Office of the Medical Examiner. His brother, John Boisa, was the boat’s owner and pilot, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Three survivors taken to nearby hospitals were later released. The other 13 people rescued from the boat were treated at the scene Tuesday and allowed to return home that night, Crispen said.
Officials did not release details Wednesday about the three missing passengers. Toczko said only that everyone aboard was part of a group of close family and friends.
The Coast Guard decided to end the search after crews covered 950 square nautical miles using 11 boats and four aircraft.
“We have completely saturated the search area,” Toczko said.
Life jackets were aboard the boat, though only some passengers were wearing them, authorities said.
The Stockton-registered boat had traveled to the bay before departing from a yacht harbor in San Francisco’s Marina District on Tuesday, Toczko said. It was struck by the wave after leaving Angel Island, he said.
Initial reports indicated a fire had broken out aboard the vessel, but authorities later determined witnesses had mistaken steam for smoke, fire officials said. The boat was large enough to withstand the waters near Alcatraz, said San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mariano Elias, but “the question is whether the boat was designed to be in the bay at that time of day.”
The area where the boat sank is often called “the slot,” a band of the bay where offshore winds from the Pacific are compressed as they race east past San Francisco. Winds that may normally be 10 knots can jump to 20 knots there, said John Harrison, 77, who has been a member of the Treasure Island Yacht Club for 50 years.
Although Harrison said the area is “not eminently dangerous,” he added that “you gotta know what you’re doing” to navigate it safely.
“Depending on which way the tide is flowing, if you get tides going against the wind, you get real chop,” Harrison said. “It’s not particularly safe.”
Crispen initially said the boat set sail from the St. Francis Yacht Club, though the organization disputed that Wednesday. The boat “did not embark from, nor was it associated with” the yacht club, said Susan Ruhne, who is listed as its commodore in nonprofit filings.
“We share the same bay, and our condolences go out to the family and the friends of the victims of this unfortunate tragedy,” Ruhne said.
The deadly disaster cast a pall over the bay’s boating community Wednesday, said Abel Arredondo, 40, who has sailed for years and now performs safety checks on boats at San Francisco harbors. He recalled working at the yacht harbor Tuesday and watching in horror as the boat appeared to slowly sink while nearby boaters raced to help save people in the water.
About 24 hours later, he struggled to come to grips with what happened.
“It’s really heartbreaking,” Arredondo said. “It’s a really dark day.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.