SF Bay tragedy: Another body from capsized boat recovered as Coast Guard search nears end 8%
By Garrett Leahy10% George Kelly20% Max Harrison-Caldwell45% Kevin Truong10% Jennifer Wadsworth17% Michael McLaughlin10%
7/15/2026, 11:35:38 PM
Keywords: Alcatraz, U S Coast Guard
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Negativity Bias, and Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 8.5% saturation with 74 hits. Analysis detected 374 faulty-reasoning hits from 874 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24.5% and a BS Rank of 8% (14,956 of 16,190 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 92.40% of the article peer group.
A celebration of life turned deadly Tuesday when a boat called the Volare, carrying 20 passengers, capsized in the San Francisco Bay off the coast of Alcatraz.
Owner John Boisa was at the helm when the vessel took on a wave, tipped, then quickly rolled over.
Photos taken from nearby boats soon after the Volare began taking on water show it on its side and passengers waving down passersby for help.
Of the 20 onboard, 16 were rescued and have returned home.
The captain’s older brother, retired law enforcement officer Clifford Boisa, died in the accident.
Authorities have recovered the body of a female but haven’t revealed the identity.
A dog that was onboard also died.
The passengers were spreading the ashes of Maria Boisa, who died of suicide in 2016 at age 33, according to Ralph Boisa, her adoptive father and brother of John and Clifford.
She was an avid surfer, and 10 years after her death, the family decided to spread her ashes in the bay.
Two people remain missing.
The U.S.
Coast Guard said it would suspend its search for survivors Wednesday at sunset.
The San Francisco Police Department will lead recovery efforts after that.
Earlier Wednesday, authorities said the missing included Carol, sister of the Boisa brothers; Clifford’s wife, Jackie; and a friend of Maria.
“Despite the extensive search effort we have been unable to locate any survivors,” Coast Guard Cmdr.
Jarod Toczko said.
John Boisa, 62, is a Stockton resident and Navy veteran who runs a political consulting firm.
He, his wife, Miriam Lyell, and their children are members of the Chabad of Stockton synagogue.
John Boisa did not respond to an interview request.
San Francisco Fire Department officials said he was rescued and transported to a hospital before being allowed to return home.
John Boisa was an experienced boat pilot, and had sailed to the bay from Stockton “many times” in his cabin cruiser, which he’d owned for “several years,” Ralph Boisa said.
“It’s hard to believe this would happen,” Ralph Boisa said.
For more than a decade, John Boisa was an active member of the Greater North Stockton Toastmasters Club, a group focused on improving public speaking.
William Doughty, who has been part of the club for 34 years and has known Boisa for about 15, described him as a “strong mentor” within the organization.
“John’s got some very strong leadership ability and was very involved for many years,” Doughty said.
Doughty said Boisa left the Toastmasters in recent years to nurture an interest in boat maintenance.
The National Weather Service predicted that winds in the bay would be no higher than 17 mph Tuesday, but gusts reached 30 mph in the afternoon.
Tamara Aparton, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, said Boisa and his wife have valid documentation and insurance for the fiberglass boat, an Eagle Trawler Yacht.
They had a temporary dock rental from July 11 to July 16 at the San Francisco Marina Yacht Harbor.
Toczko said crews have covered 950 square nautical miles and searched more than 1,700 miles of track line using 11 surface assets and four aircraft since the initial distress call came in Tuesday afternoon.
He added that reports of a fire aboard the vessel were unsubstantiated.
Officials said the vessel sank under about 130 feet of water, and San Francisco police are working with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to pinpoint the wreck’s position.
Divers typically cannot operate safely beyond 120 feet of depth.
SFPD Cmdr.
Brian Hoo, head of the department’s Special Operations Bureau, said police will use an underwater drone to assess whether the vessel can be raised to the surface.
He said any recovery effort would require coordination with a specialized salvage company.
Coast Guard officials confirmed that the Volare was documented and home-ported in Stockton, describing it as a 49-foot vessel with three levels and living spaces that was “certainly capable of handling” the roughly 20 people reported aboard.
Boisa is listed online as a member of the Stockton Yacht Club.
“At this time the Stockton Yacht Club has no comment regarding the tragic incident,” board chair Karen Conrod said in an email.
“This is a heartbreaking situation that has touched the entire boating community deeply.
We are keeping all those involved, their loved ones, the first responders, and everyone impacted by this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.”
Toczko said he did not have details on the boat’s most recent safety inspection, noting that it was classified as a pleasure craft rather than a commercially regulated vessel.
Captain Kirk Miller, who owns a sailing boat charter company that operates in the bay, said monitoring weight distribution on a vessel is critical to keeping it balanced.
If, for example, passengers were crowded on the top-level “flybridge,” it could have been dangerous for the stability of the boat.
Licensed charter boats like the ones Miller operates are subject to regular review from regulators, including stability tests that use barrels of water to simulate how much weight they can handle and how far they can safely list.
“The physics of instability,” he said, “are really unforgiving.”
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