Deadly capsize near Alcatraz: Family gathered to scatter ashes

One man was dead and three people remained missing Wednesday afternoon as the U.S. Coast Guard prepared to suspend its search at sunset, nearly 30 hours after the Volare capsized near Alcatraz Island.

Three people were hospitalized and later released, while 13 others returned home safely, San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen said. The man who died was identified as Clifford Boisa, 79, the brother of the boat’s owner and pilot, John Boisa.

Coast Guard crews searched about 950 square nautical miles with 11 vessels and four aircraft but found no additional survivors. Capt. Jarod Toczko said there was a “high possibility” that the missing passengers had been trapped inside the three-level cabin cruiser when it rapidly rolled over and sank in roughly 130 feet of water.

Survivor accounts indicated that the vessel took a wave over its side, listed heavily and quickly overturned, Toczko said. Investigators had not determined why it lost stability, and the initial report of a fire remained unsubstantiated.

The Volare, a 49-foot pleasure craft home-ported in Stockton, had traveled from the S.F. Marina Yacht Club to Angel Island before the emergency. Most of the 20 adults aboard were relatives or close friends who had gathered for a memorial.

Officials are assessing whether the cabin cruiser that sank near Alcatraz can be recovered from the bay floor. Raising the vessel could help investigators determine what caused Tuesday’s deadly capsize, but its location about 120 feet below the surface in a busy shipping channel makes any salvage operation difficult.

Read more here about the challenges of recovering the sunken boat.

When the Volare started sinking, at least four people were inside the boat’s cabin, according to Ralph Boisa. The family had gathered on the boat to spread the ashes of Maria Boisa, Ralph’s daughter who died in 2016.

Boisa said his other daughter, Maria’s sister, was inside the cabin alongside two of her aunts, Carol and Jackie Boisa, and a friend of Maria’s when the boat was overtaken by a wave. The four fought to get out as the boat sunk into the waves, Ralph said his daughter recounted. Outside, some of the other family members had been knocked in the water; Clifford Boisa, Jackie’s husband, would later die from his injuries.

Ralph said his daughter was able to escape the cabin, but Carol, Jackie and Maria’s friend were all trapped inside as the boat sunk more than 100 feet into the bay. Seventeen other passengers were rescued, Clifford was the only death.

Officials confirmed witnesses reported there were passengers inside the boat’s cabin as it sunk and that it’s possible they remained trapped as the boat sunk. They have not identified the three still-missing passengers. On Wednesday, officials said they planned to end the search at sunset, but the Coast Guard said it may attempt to surface the boat. Such effort would be challenging due to the depth of the boat, authorities said.

Family and extended friends of the Boisa family had gathered to scatter the ashes of Maria Boisa, a niece, sister, cousin and friend to those onboard, according to Ralph Boisa, Maria’s adopted father. Maria lived in San Francisco before she died by suicide in 2016, Ralph said.

Several relatives were onboard, including Ralph’s three siblings — Carol Boisa, Clifford and John, who owned the boat with his wife, Miriam Lyell. Of the 20 passengers, 17 were rescued by first responders.

Authorities confirmed Clifford Boisa, 79, was recovered from the water but later died. Ralph Boisa said the three missing individuals are his sister, Carol, Clifford’s wife Jackie and a friend of Maria’s who were onboard. Officials have not confirmed the identities of the three missing individuals.

Cliff and Jackie Boisa’s home in Rio Oso (Sutter County) is nestled among orchards, like many of the homes in the agricultural community approximately 20 south of Yuba City. 

San Francisco officials identified Cliff Boisa as the person who died after the Volare boat capsized near Alcatraz Tuesday. 

The white-shingled house was quiet Wednesday afternoon, except for the buzz of sprinklers on the property’s surrounding orchards, attempting to keep up with temperatures that edged toward triple digits.

A man who described himself as a family friend and was standing in their driveway said he would not comment on the incident or Jackie Boisa’s condition.

The Volare was capable of carrying 20 people, although investigators will examine several factors that could have affected its stability, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jarod Toczko said.

“It was certainly capable of handling that capacity of people,” Toczko said. “But there’s a lot of things that goes into account when you consider stability of a vessel.”

The Volare appeared to take a wave over its side, list heavily and rapidly roll over, according to survivor accounts reviewed by the Coast Guard.

“What it does appear is that the vessel took a wave and was listing heavily and lost a little bit of stability, and then it quickly rolled over,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jarod Toczko said.

He cautioned that investigators had not determined why the vessel lost stability or what ultimately caused it to sink.

“All indications are that things happened very quickly,” he said. “When the vessel took on a wave over the side, it quickly rolled to starboard.”

Coast Guard crews searched continuously for 23 hours after the Volare capsized near Alcatraz, covering about 950 square nautical miles, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jarod Toczko said during a Wednesday news conference.

Eleven surface vessels and four aircraft traveled more than 1,700 miles of search tracks as crews used tides, currents and weather conditions to model where the three missing passengers might have drifted.

“We have completely saturated the search area,” Toczko said.

San Francisco Deputy Police Chief Brian Hoo said officials must first locate the Volare and determine its depth and structural condition before deciding whether the vessel can be raised from the Bay.

The feasibility of lifting the boat will depend in part on how deep it rests, Hoo said. Investigators also need to determine whether the vessel is structurally sound enough to survive a salvage operation.

Hoo said the sinking remained under investigation but did not say whether authorities had opened a criminal investigation. San Francisco police would lead any potential criminal case.

“Anytime you take a vessel out on the water, in the ocean, in the bay, it’s a dangerous evolution,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jarod Toczko said, adding that officials did not yet have enough information to determine why the boat sank.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jarod Toczko credited a kite boarder and people aboard nearby vessels with helping passengers before rescue crews arrived.

“There’s no question those folks saved lives,” he said.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jarod Toczko said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon that officials had not yet determined what caused the Volare boat to capsize in the San Francisco Bay. 

The U.S. Coast Guard plans to suspend its search for three people still missing after the Volare capsized near Alcatraz at sunset Wednesday, Sector San Francisco commander Capt. Jarod Toczko said.

“My intent is to cease search operations at sunset this evening,” Toczko said.

He said there was a “high possibility” that the missing passengers had been trapped inside the vessel when it overturned. The boat appeared to have taken a wave, lost stability and “quickly rolled over,” he said.

San Francisco police were working with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to pinpoint the vessel’s location. Toczko said the depth of the wreck could sharply limit any dive operation.

“If you get much below 120 feet, it would be extremely difficult to do a dive on that,” he said.

Toczko described those aboard as “all close friends and family.” He also said the initial report of a fire was “unsubstantiated.”

Clifford Boisa, the brother of the boat’s captain, and a dog died in the accident. Three survivors were treated at a hospital and released, and 13 others returned home safely.

Mayor Daniel Lurie said the search would continue through nightfall and called the response an “all-hands-on-deck” effort.

“I want to express my condolences to the family and friends of the known victim,” Lurie said. “These are the moments you do not want to come down and see as mayor.”

Clifford Boisa was a retired reserve deputy for the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office who served in the role from 1987 to 2001, according to the agency.

“His years of dedicated service and commitment to public safety will not be forgotten,” the agency said.

“Sheriff Brandon Barnes and the members of the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office extend their heartfelt condolences to the Boisa family, as well as to the families and loved ones of all those involved in this tragic incident. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time.”

San Francisco Bay has claimed hundreds of lives in maritime disasters dating back more than 170 years. 

Tuesday’s fatal boat sinking near Alcatraz joins a grim history that includes the 1944 Port Chicago explosion, the 1901 City of Rio de Janeiro wreck and other deadly accidents caused by the bay’s treacherous currents, fog and rocky waters.

Read more here about the maritime catastrophes that have shaped the bay’s history.

U.S. Coast Guard records show the Voltare had passed recent safety inspections, with a certificate to the vessel valid until 2030.

The Voltare was 49-foot-long trawler built in 1980 by the manufacturer Marine Trader. A background check from the website Boat History Report showed no record of previous accidents.

The U.S. Coast Guard plans to hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday with an update on the search for three people missing after the Volare capsized near Alcatraz Island. 

The briefing is expected to address the continuing search-and-rescue operation and efforts to locate and potentially raise the vessel, which sank in about 120 feet of water.

Attempting to raise the 49-foot cabin cruiser from its location 120 feet deep in a shipping channel would be an immensely difficult operation, said Anthony Saviano, the owner of Sub One Diving, a local operation that has raised sunken vessels in the area.

Divers would have poor visibility in the bay’s especially cloudy waters, Saviano said, likely making it difficult to locate the boat called Volare. The divers would only have a short period of time to do the work, as they have to wait for slack tides, a brief period when tidal currents are at their weakest, he said.

Exactly how much time divers would have varies daily, but Saviano said they could have an hour to complete a project that would require several hours. Divers would also need a hyperbaric chamber to decompress in once they resurface.

Given all the challenges, Saviano said “the reason for raising it would have to be pretty extraordinary.”

The U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue operation was aided by the highest resolution ocean current data in the country. Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System program director Alex Harper described the five radars that measure the direction and speed of ocean currents inside San Francisco Bay as a “world-leading” network in an interview with the Chronicle last year.

High resolution currents, to 500-meter resolution, are only available within San Francisco Bay. Elsewhere along the California coast, current data is 2 kilometers. Harper said the data helped the Coast Guard Sector San Francisco save hundreds of lives in 2024.

The Integrated Ocean Observing System is part of the National Ocean Service, a branch of NOAA. The Trump administration proposed cutting $513 million to the National Ocean Service and the elimination of Integrated Ocean Observing System regional observations as early as October. Congress rejected similarly proposed cuts last year.

While authorities initially reported that the Volare departed from the St. Francis Yacht Club, a spokesperson for San Francisco Recreation and Parks clarified Wednesday that the vessel had berthed at the San Francisco Marina Yacht Harbor, which is adjacent to the yacht club.

Transponder data tracked the vessel in Stockton on July 10 and on San Francisco’s northern waterfront the following day and on then again on Sunday and Tuesday.

St. Francis Yacht Club Manager John Meagher confirmed Wednesday that the vessel had not visited the club.

“Our hearts go out to the friends and family of those on board,” Meagher said. “While the boat didn’t embark from the St. Francis Yacht Club — nor were there members on board — we share this day and therefore understand the weight of this tragedy.”

All patients rescued from the boat who were treated at CPMC Van Ness hospital in San Francisco had been discharged as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to a Sutter Health spokesperson, who declined to release any more information about the patients or their injuries.

The boat passengers rescued from the choppy San Francisco Bay waters Tuesday afternoon were wearing lifejackets when they were brought into the GasHouse Cove Marina, said Christine Kaplan, owner and operator of the fueling station that served as the site of the emergency operation.

“Everyone had a life jacket on when they got to the dock,” Kaplan said.

Some of the lifejackets were labeled with Bass Tub, the name of a private commercial fishing boat that rescued at least one woman with a head injury, Kaplan said. “It was apparent that some of the people that were giving assistance had thrown jackets to them,” she said.

Kaplan said she saw Marine 3, the San Francisco police boat, speeding into the cove while rescuers performed CPR onboard, calling out, “We’ve got somebody on board.”

A U.S. Coast Guard boat and the Bass Tub started to arrive with the rest of the victims, who were “in all sorts of conditions –- there were leg injuries, there were head injuries,” Kaplan said. The survivors appeared wet and shivering with cold. “These people were not set to go for a swim,” Kaplan said. “Given their age and physical condition, I think it is absolutely remarkable that there wasn’t more fatalities.”

John Boisa, his wife, son and another woman pulled into the driveway of their Stockton home at about 10:40 a.m. He wore a gray sweatshirt with yellow socks and no shoes. 

“All of us are grieving during this time,” Boisa said and declined to answer any further questions about the victims or why they were on the boat.

Their next door neighbor, Peggy Wood, said she’d been in touch with Boisa and his wife since the accident. “They are lovely people,” Wood said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them. This is a lot.” Wood declined to answer questions.

The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified the man who died in Tuesday’s boat sinking as Clifford Boisa, 79, the brother of captain John Boisa. He lived in Sutter County, officials said. 

An online biography for John Boisa’s consulting company lists Clifford as one of Boisa’s two older brothers.

The 49-foot Volare, based out of Stockton, was owned by John Boisa, according to online records and social media posts.

Boisa, 62, is a Stockton resident who owned his own political consulting firm, according to his social media profiles. Military records and a previous online biography show Boisa was a U.S. Navy veteran who served on the U.S.S. Dubuque in Japan during the 1980s.

An acquaintance of Boisa told the Chronicle he was an experienced boater who regularly took the Volare, a three-story cabin cruiser, out on to the bay.

“He loved his boat and he took care of it,” the acquaintance said.

James Kim, 37, said he witnessed the cabin cruiser sink from about 3:30-4 p.m. He was originally out with colleagues on the Santa Maria yacht from the San Francisco Sailing Co. Their boat headed in the direction of the Volare – by the time they arrived, most of it was submerged. 

“You could see a ton of the stuff from inside the boat floating, like cushions and even a random kayak,” Kim said. “There was a standup paddleboard with at least three people hanging off of it. It was a crazy scene. In all directions, (there was) random junk just floating.”

A photo from around 3:40 p.m. shows people still on the top deck of the boat, with one person hanging onto the side. Kim said he did not personally see people wearing lifejackets, though he saw lifejackets floating in the water.

He said water conditions around the time they were near the Volare were “relatively choppy,” and even gave him the sensation of his stomach dropping as if he were on a rollercoaster.

“It’s hard to believe you can come across the passing of a life in such a casual manner,” Kim said. “We were out for a fun yacht outing and we stumbled across an accident where at least one person lost their life.”

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said Wednesday that search-and-rescue operations were continuing for three people still missing after the deadly boat capsize near Alcatraz.

Lurie thanked the San Francisco fire and police departments, the U.S. Coast Guard, Oakland and Richmond police, Tiburon firefighters, the Southern Marin Fire Protection District and people aboard private vessels who helped with the response.

He also thanked the American Red Cross and San Francisco Human Services Agency for assisting survivors and others affected by the incident.

“The work our first responders have done so far today has been nothing short of heroic,” Lurie wrote on social media. 

Skies were clear, but conditions on the water were breezy and choppy when the Volare capsized about ¼ mile souteast of Alcatraz around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. The National Weather Service had not issued a Small Craft Advisory for San Francisco Bay, and its afternoon marine forecast called for southwest winds of 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 11 to 17 mph later in the day. Air temperatures near the central Bay were in the mid-60s, and water the water temperature was around 64 degrees.

Actual winds near the Golden Gate were stronger. A NOAA station at Fort Point, about 2½ miles west of the accident site, measured sustained west-southwest winds of 20 to 22 mph and gusts up to 30 mph at the time of the capsize. In a Wednesday morning update, the Weather Service noted that forecast models had substantially misread the regional pressure pattern, missing a stronger-than-expected area of high pressure over Nevada. That error contributed to temperatures running hotter than forecast and means the pressure gradients, and potentially the localized winds, were not forecasted correctly.

The accident occurred in an exposed stretch of the Bay where wind funneling through the Golden Gate can produce steep, closely spaced chop. An outgoing current may have further steepened those waves. The NWS has issued a Small Craft Advisory for the bay on Wednesday afternoon, calling for southwest winds at 11 to 17 mph with gusts up to 30 mph and a moderate chop.

Photos released by the Richmond Police Department show whitecaps across San Francisco Bay as marine units from several agencies searched near the partially submerged Volare.

One image shows only part of the cabin cruiser’s burgundy canopy above the water as a rescue boat maneuvers nearby. Other photos show Richmond police officers and vessels from regional fire and law enforcement agencies working in the choppy conditions.

The department said its Marine Unit joined the initial response after the vessel sank near Alcatraz Island and would continue assisting with the search.

“Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones affected by this tragic incident,” the department said.

Richmond police Lt. Joseph England previously estimated swells at 4 to 6 feet and described the conditions as “super rough.” The department measured the water temperature at 64.8 degrees, he said.

On Wednesday, officials will attempt to raise the sunken 50-foot Volare off the floor of the bay, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard. Petty Ofc. Charlie Valor said the agency expects to make an attempt later today to recover the vessel with the help of the San Francisco Police Department and a salvaging company.

San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Mariano Elias said the boat sank in a deep shipping channel and is about 120 feet down in the water, out of the reach of rescue divers. Valor said the Coast Guard will use sonar imaging to scan the seafloor and identify exactly where the boat is. Officials initially had concerns that the fuel of the boat might be leaking out into the water, but no pollution has been detected in the area, Valor said.

The U.S. Coast Guard is still focusing on search and rescue, not recovery, according to a spokesperson.

The Coast Guard has been rotating resources throughout the search, according to Petty Ofc. Charlie Valor. Currently an 87-foot cutter named the Barracuda is searching alongside a 29-foot small boat, a 47-foot lifeboat and a fixed wing aircraft from Sacramento, according to Valor.

Officials are still searching for three missing passengers after a boat sank in the San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz Island on Tuesday night. 

Lt. Mariano Elias, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department, said search and rescuers aren’t sure if the individuals may have been swept out to sea or trapped inside the cabin of the boat as it sank. Officials have said there were 20 people aboard the roughly 50-foot cabin cruiser, which began taking on water amid choppy waves and strong winds Tuesday. Sixteen of those passengers were recovered after several agencies, and private fishing vessels, responded to the boat’s call for distress, including members of the Oakland Police Department that were conducting a training operation nearby, according to Elias. One passenger, whose identity has not been released, died after being rescued from the water.

Tuesday night’s capsizing took place in one of the deepest parts of the San Francisco Bay, adding particular difficulties for search and rescuers, said Lt. Mariano Elias, spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department.

The vast majority of the bay is less than 30 feet deep, according to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, with the deepest point being roughly 340 feet down. But Tuesday’s accident took place in a particularly deep shipping channel usually used by container ships making their way to the Port of Oakland, Elias said. Officials estimate the now-sunken boat is about 120 feet deep in the bay.

That made it impossible for fire department divers, who max out at 60 feet, to reach the boat, Elias said. As a result, officials haven’t been able to confirm whether any passengers remained trapped inside of the boat as it sank.

Authorities continued searching overnight for the three people missing.

Officials said 20 adults were aboard the vessel. Sixteen survived, one man died after being pulled from the water and given CPR, and three survivors were hospitalized with stable, non-life-threatening injuries. 

The 13 uninjured survivors received assistance from the city’s Human Services Agency and the American Red Cross at Fort Mason.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said on Tuesday evening that search teams were continuing to look for the missing people using thermal imaging, tide predictions and computer modeling.

The response included the San Francisco fire and police departments, the U.S. Coast Guard, Oakland and Richmond police, Tiburon firefighters and the Southern Marin Fire Protection District. People aboard private vessels also joined the rescue.

“The work our first responders have done so far today has been nothing short of heroic,” Lurie wrote in a social media post.

Most of the adults aboard the Volare were relatives or knew one another and had gathered for a memorial, Fire Chief Dean Crispen said.

“Our understanding was there was some kind of memorial service that they were engaging in,” Crispen said.

As of Wednesday morning, authorities had not released the identities of the person who died or the three people who remained missing.

Authorities said the Volare departed from the St. Francis Yacht Club before taking on water in rough seas after being hit by a wave and overturning in San Francisco Bay.

The vessel had previously been described as a pontoon boat, but officials later clarified that it was a three-deck, 49-foot cabin cruiser.

Early 911 callers reported what appeared to be a fire aboard the vessel, but officials later determined the apparent smoke was steam. Fire officials said responders found no evidence of a fire or explosion.

When San Francisco police maritime officers arrived at the scene, they saw a man in “severe distress,” put him on a rescue boat and brought him to Gas House Cove, where he was pronounced dead, Crispen said.

Officials did not release his name or other identifying information about him.

Crispen also said he did not know the cause of the capsize, only that the boat was in “rough seas,” and took on water after being hit by a wave. The boat then overturned in the Bay.