San Francisco Bay boater killed after vessel sinks near Alcatraz identified; search for missing passengers continues

By Carlos E. Castañeda

Authorities identified the person who died after the boat he was on sank in San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz Island on Tuesday, as crews continued to search for three other missing boaters on Wednesday.

A triple-deck boat with 20 people aboard capsized in rough waters about 600 yards from Alcatraz on Tuesday afternoon and sank. One of those pulled out of the water was given CPR aboard a rescue boat and taken to shore where he was pronounced dead.

The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identifed the man as Clifford Joseph Boisa, 79, of Sutter County.

The Boisa family of Stockton provided a statement saying, “Everyone involved, all of the loved and cherished family members and friends, are grieving this loss. We want to thank all of you for our privacy at this time.”  

A spokesperson for the city’s Recreation and Park Department told CBS News Bay Area the vessel, a 50-foot cabin cruiser named Volare held a temporary berthing permit for the Marina Yacht Harbor, and the owner was listed as John Edward Boisa of Stockton.

Three other passengers were taken to the hospital and were in stable condition with impact injuries from jumping into the water, authorities said, while 13 other passengers were brought safely to shore. A dog that was on board also died, authorities said.

On Wednesday, Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a video posted on social media that the San Francisco Fire Department and U.S. Coast Guard search teams were using technology such as thermal imaging and tide prediction to support the efforts to find the three other missing passengers.

The boat capsized at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and was initially reported as a boat fire, but first responders said they found no evidence of fire.  

“The reports we’ve had from witnesses is that there was rough seas and apparently the vessel began to take on water and was turned over in the bay,” San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen said.

Crispen said that all the people on board were adults, and most were family members engaging in a memorial service of some kind.  Multiple agencies and individuals on private vessels participated in the rescue operation, Crispen said. A boater who participated in the rescue said he saw that most of those on the sinking vessel had life vests on, but not all.

“You know, this one lady, she goes ‘Don’t let me go, I don’t know how to swim,’ and I was telling her, I ain’t going to let you go. And I gripped her and wrangled her in, pretty much,” Justin Marceline said. “There was a younger gentleman and he didn’t even have a life jacket on, he had just a throwable and I gave him a fishing weight to go try to break the windows over there because people were banging on the windows trying to get out. It was pretty wild seeing that honestly.” 

Marceline said the first person he helped rescue confirmed the outing was for a memorial for a family member.

“It was like Titanic in real life,” Marceline said. “I mean, there was stuff everywhere, people were banging on the glass, and there’s not much you can do except grab the people from the water that are in the water.”

“There was people standing up on what was still out of theater, and then I also seen another group of people hanging on to what appeared to be a surf board or a wind surf board, and they were in the water,” said boater James Smith, who was returning from a fishing trip and saw the rescue operation. 

“I’ve been on the water for 35-plus years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Smith added. 

“The boat was about halfway in, people were trying to climb out, you know, elderly. We seen a dog that was out there, too,” another unidentified witness said. “It was hard for them to get out of that boat, you know, they had to climb over a rail and hang, do what they can to stay afloat…Those people that were in that group in the water, that’s where I seen there was a lady, she had just blood coming down her head.”

The Coast Guard and San Francisco Fire Department were scheduled to hold a press conference to update the search efforts at 2 p.m. at Gashouse Cove Marina. 

This is a breaking news update. More information to be added as available.