Search suspended for 3 missing after boat with family spreading ashes
capsizes on San Francisco Bay
[July 16, 2026]
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JAIMIE DING
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — U.S. Coast Guard crews suspended their search late
Wednesday for three people missing a day after a boat capsized in the
cold, choppy waters of San Francisco Bay while carrying 20 family
members and friends who went out to scatter the ashes of a loved one.
“Suspending a search is one of the hardest parts of our job and our
condolences are with the families of all involved,” U.S. Coast Guard
Captain Jared S. Toczko said in a statement.
Ralph Boisa said his extended family and a few close friends were on his
younger brother's boat Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the life of his
daughter who died over a decade ago and was in her 30s.
His older brother, Clifford, died shortly after being pulled out of the
water. Sixteen others were rescued as the cabin cruiser was hit by a
wave, took on water, listed heavily to one side and rolled over before
sinking. Clifford's dog also died.
The three people missing are his sister Carol, Clifford's wife Jackie,
and his daughter's friend, he said.
“We’ve gone through a lot of tragedy over the years,” said Boisa, who
lost his other daughter in 1995. He lives in Washington and couldn't
make it for the excursion.
Search ends at sundown Wednesday
Crews searched more than 814 square miles (2,108.3 square kilometers),
according to the Coast Guard, and suspended their search “pending
further developments.”
Toczko previously said he would not dismiss the possibility that those
missing could still be alive, though he also said some could have been
trapped inside the three-deck, 49-foot (15-meter) cabin cruiser.
“We do know individuals were in the main deck and potentially below
deck," he said. Witnesses described seeing people pounding on glass
windows, trapped as the boat sank.
Crews have identified the location the boat sank but have yet to
determine how deep it sank, Toczko said.
Once the boat is located, officials will send either divers or an
underwater drone to determine if it's feasible to salvage it, said San
Francisco Police Commander Brien Hoo. If the boat is under 120 feet (37
meters) of water, it would be difficult for divers to get to it, he
said.
Witnesses reported “rough seas,” San Francisco Fire Department Chief
Dean Crispen said, and rescuers said swells reached up to 5 feet (1.5
meters). Marine weather conditions, however, didn't warrant a small
craft advisory from the National Weather Service.
Fire department spokesperson Lt. Mariano Elias said the vessel, named
Volare, was registered out of Stockton, California, which sits at the
eastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
According to the ship-tracking website VesselFinder, the boat departed a
San Francisco marina, passed under the Golden Gate Bridge twice and
visited Angel Island State Park, the largest natural island in the bay.
It was on its way back to San Francisco when it sank near Alcatraz, the
famous maximum-security federal prison which closed more than 60 years
ago.
Kirk Miller, an experienced local sailor with a master mariner license,
said an uneven distribution of passengers could have caused the Volare
to tip.
“As it rocks in the waves, it leans over a little bit,” Miller said.
“And as it leans over, the stability would decrease. If you had weight
down below it acts as ballast. There was nothing in the conditions that
were extreme in any regard. There was no massive gust of wind, no huge
wave.”
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A police boat passes Alcatraz Island as search and rescue operations
continue for victims of a Tuesday boat sinking on Wednesday, July
15, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Like a ‘Titanic’ scene, rescuer says
Two men who jumped into action while fishing for halibut said the
boat that sank was more than capable of being out in the bay. Justin
Marceline and Michael Montoya said they saw what they thought was
smoke and arrived to find the vessel halfway submerged.
“We just started yanking people out,” Marceline told The Associated
Press. At least two people bobbed in the water without life jackets,
while others clung to a windsurfer’s board.
Marceline could see people trapped inside the rapidly sinking boat
through its windows. He threw lead fishing weights to survivors in
the water, hoping they could smash the glass, but they were too
weak.
“It was like Titanic in real life,” he said. “There was stuff
everywhere. People were banging on the glass.”
Montoya estimated they pulled eight or nine people aboard, including
the captain, before first responders arrived.
Initial callers reported what appeared to be smoke coming from the
boat, but San Francisco police officers who first reached the vessel
said it was steam.
Toczko said there were life jackets onboard the boat and that some
people were rescued wearing them.
Sudden immersion in water under 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees
Celsius) can lead to cold water shock, a condition where people lose
dexterity in minutes. That can be dangerous or deadly when trying to
escape a sinking watercraft.
The owners of the boat are John Boisa and Miriam Boisa of Stockton,
Coast Guard records show. They did not immediately respond to
messages seeking comment.
“All of us are grieving during this time,” he told the San Francisco
Chronicle.
Ralph Boisa said his brother John is a “very capable and experienced
boatsman” who served in the U.S. Navy. He frequently took family
members out on the boat to the San Francisco Bay, Boisa said.
His older brother who died, Clifford Boisa, lived on a small prune
orchard in Sutter County in the Sacramento Valley and was a
volunteer sheriff's deputy for more than a decade. Ralph Boisa had
planned to visit him for his 80th birthday party next month.
“He was a happy guy, jovial,” Boisa said. “We're pretty broken up
here.”
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Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire;
Ed White in Detroit; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and photographer Noah
Berger in San Francisco contributed to this story.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
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