The 49-foot cabin cruiser that capsized and sank on July 14, killing four people, will not be raised from where it came to rest on the bottom of San Francisco Bay, police announced Friday.
The Volare, the cabin-cruiser that sank with 20 people onboard during a memorial cruise on July 14, in the middle of San Francisco Bay about 600 yards from Alcatraz Island, is going to stay at the bottom of the Bay. The San Francisco Police Department, which is leading the investigation into the cause of the boat tragedy, said Friday that they will not be raising or recovering the sunken boat as part of their investigation, as the Chronicle reports.
We learned early on, after the boat sank, that it had settled in one of the deepest part of the Bay, about 130 feet down, which makes it impossible for human dive teams to reach. And while three of the dead are accounted for, one remains missing, and family members who were on the boat that day say that the body will likely be found inside the cabin of the boat.
Police said Friday that the underwater current where the boat is lying is so strong that it is actually moving the boat itself, and any recovery effort of the wreckage would be too dangerous to attempt.
"We can complete our investigation through other means," said police spokesperson Evan Sernoffsky, in a statement to the Chronicle.
Police have not determined whether any criminal charges will be filed in connection with the disaster.
The Volare sank during a pleasure cruise around the Bay, with 20 people and a dog, mostly members of the same family with some friends, aboard. The cruise was intended to memorialize a family member, Maria Boisa, who died by suicide back in 2015, and her ashes were to be scattered on the Bay.
The boat was owned and being captained by Maria's uncle, 62-year-old John Boisa, a resident of Stockton, who was reportedly familiar with navigating the Bay, and who had taken the boat all the way down the California coast to San Diego before.
Boisa told investigators that he had the boat on autopilot at the time of the capsize — with autopilot on such boats simply being a steering function, maintaining a straight line as the boat headed back to a dock in San Francisco. Sailors familiar with the Bay have suggested the boat may have been struck by a rogue wave, and/or the uneven distribution of passengers on the three-deck boat may have contributed to its instability.
Those lost in the tragedy include Boisa's brother, 79-year-old Clifford Boisa, who was pulled from the water but died shortly thereafter; and their 74-year-old sister Carol Boisa. The body of a family friend, 58-year-old Tondra Miller, aka Tondra Madruga, was found in the Bay two days after the sinking. And the body of Jackie Boisa, wife of Clifford, has still not been found. The dog was also lost.
The three women who died were all said to have been inside an interior cabin when the boat tipped over, and all became trapped as the boat quickly sank.
The SFPD has not provided any updates on the status of the investigation, and we await further word on that.
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