It may or may not prove consequential for the investigation into the sinking of the Volare in San Francisco Bay last month, which took the lives of four passengers, but a police report suggests that the captain had the boat on autopilot at the time that it sank.
As the Chronicle reports, after obtaining a police report that had previously not been made public, Volare captain John Boisa said in an initial interview with police that the boat was on autopilot as it was heading back to its berth at the San Francisco Marina Yacht Harbor, following a day cruise that was intended as a memorial for a lost family member.
Boisa has still not commented publicly on the disaster and has refused media interviews, but is reportedly cooperating with the investigation.
The police interview further revealed that Boisa admitted to having a shot of whiskey about two and a half hours before the boat sank. As the Chronicle reports, police obtained a search warrant to test Boisa's blood-alcohol level when he was hospitalized just after the accident, and we still don't know what the results of that test were.
Initial reporting suggested that authorities did not believe that alcohol was a factor in the tragedy.
The Volare sank on July 14 in one of the deepest parts of the bay, about 600 meters away from Alcatraz, after reportedly being struck by a rogue wave that caused it to roll over. Of the 20 people onboard that day, 16 survived, with 17 initially pulled from the water just after the boat went over.
79-year-old Clifford Boisa, John's brother, succumbed to injuries and/or exposure to the cold Bay waters shortly after being rescued.
Three women, including Clifford's wife Jackie Boisa, his sister Carol Boisa, and 58-year-old Tondra Madruga, reportedly became trapped in the boat's cabin and were unable to escape as the boat took on water and sank. Jackie Boisa remains missing, while the bodies of Carol Boisa and Madruga have since turned up in the Bay.
While early reports assumed that the pleasure craft was not fit for the sometimes rough waters of the Bay, it later emerged that Boisa had frequently taken the boat out on the Bay, and that it was a sturdy cabin cruiser that Boisa had previously piloted in the open ocean down to San Diego.
The autopilot detail may or may not be relevant to the cause of the boat's listing and sinking. Per the Chronicle, autopilot on a boat like this is simply a steering aid, and does not prevent collision or any other sort of problem.
But, as US Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Alexander Franzese tells the paper, "I think the thing that gets people most in trouble with autopilot is not not maintaining proper lookout. The main thing I see with autopilot is just people kind of get lulled into a little bit of a false sense of complacency."
This may have led to the captain not seeing the change in the waves. Or, as another experienced charter boat captain noted early on, the stability of the Volare could have been compromised simply by the captain not being vigilant about the even distribution of his 19 passengers. If all or most of them were on one side of the boat, for instance, when that wave struck, that could have been a factor in the capsize as well.
Top image: Photo via Richmond Police Department
