As the Bay Area continues to grapple with Tuesday's terrible boat tragedy, we've slowly learned a bit more about the boat involved, its captain, and how four people likely lost their lives when it sank.
When 20 assorted family members and friends set out Tuesday for a memorial cruise around the Bay, commemorating the death of a loved one that occurred over ten years ago, no one expected to encounter mortal danger. But after a particularly large wave struck the vessel's side when it was midway between the Marin Headlands and the San Francisco Marina, and perhaps — according to some local boat experts — because of the uneven distribution of people on the boat, the boat quickly went over and began to sink.
US Coast Guard Captain Jarod Toczko tells the Chronicle that while an investigation will take place and the cause of the sinking is not yet known, preliminarily it appears the boat was "listing heavily" and lost "a little bit of stability" after being hit by the wave, causing it to very quickly roll over to the starboard side.
Some of those on the boat were immediately thrown into the water. Four women who had been inside one of the three-deck boat's cabins became trapped, and only one of them managed to open a door and get out before the boat became more fully submerged. Those three other women remain the three in the group listed as missing, and authorities have said they believe their remains will be found inside the boat, which sits at the bottom of the Bay in a shipping channel about 120 feet deep.
The boat, named Volare, was a 50-foot cabin cruiser owned by Stockton resident and Stockton Yacht Club member John Boisa, 62. It's upper deck was shielded from the sun by a stretched canvas covering that made the boat look, in the initial images that were released, when it was more than halfway submerged, like a flat-bottomed pontoon-style boat, which it was not.
As the Chronicle reports, Boisa is a former Naval officer with a considerable amount of experience on the water. The boat is described as a "1980s trawler" that had three below-deck sleeping cabins, and Boisa's brother, Ralph Boisa, told the paper in an interview that his brother had piloted the boat down the coast to San Diego last year — so he was comfortable on the open ocean.
"He was very competent in his ability to handle a boat," Ralph Boisa tells the Chronicle. "That’s why I’m so shocked at what happened. I don’t understand it."
Winds on the Bay Tuesday afternoon were reportedly gusty, with gusts up to 30 miles per hour.
Ralph Boisa and his wife, who live near the California-Oregon border, had been absent from the memorial, but their daughter, Yvonne Thatcher, attended. The event was to commemorate the life of Yvonne's adoptive sister Maria, who died in 2015 at the age of 35, by suicide. Maria, who lived in Fremont, had been an avid surfer and loved the Bay, which was why the family chose to celebrate her this way.
Thatcher, who managed to survive the ordeal, described the horrific situation with her two aunts and a friend of Maria's, who are the three who remain missing. After becoming trapped inside the cabin, they were reportedly banging on windows for help as the ship took on water, but only Thatcher managed to get out through a door.
Maria and Yvonne were part of a large family, with Ralph Boisa and his wife having adopted eight children in total.
Clifford Boisa, 79, was among the 17 survivors who were brought to GasHouse Cove Marina in the rescue effort, but he died from his injuries after arriving in "severe distress." His wife Jackie is among the missing, along with his 74-year-old sister Carol Boisa.
Rescuers also recovered a dog that died in the chaos.
The search effort for the missing was called off Wednesday night. The Coast Guard has said they are not sure of the sunken vessel's exact location, and the next step will be to locate it with an underwater drone. Per the Chronicle, the Coast Guard is still unsure whether they will be able to salvage the vessel.
