Harrowing details emerge from deadly family boat outing on San Francisco Bay 2%
By Aidin Vaziri0% St. John Barned-Smith0% Anna Bauman0% Kate Talerico0%
7/16/2026, 12:11:57 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 5 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Appeal to Emotion, and Optimism Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 11.8% saturation with 147 hits. Analysis detected 271 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,241 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 8.7% and a BS Rank of 2% (15,998 of 16,189 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.80% of the article peer group.
A boat that capsized on San Francisco Bay, leaving one dead and three missing, carried relatives and friends who were holding a memorial ceremony to spread the ashes of a deceased relative, a family member said Wednesday, sharing harrowing details of what unfolded on the vessel.
Authorities said the boat was hit by a wave Tuesday afternoon, took on water and rolled over between Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge.
The man who died was identified by the San Francisco medical examiner as Clifford Boisa, 79, of Sutter County.
He was the older brother of John Boisa, 62, the Stockton man who owned the boat with his wife Miriam Lyell and captained the vessel.
Of the 20 people aboard the 49-foot cruiser named the Volare, 16 survived.
Three were treated at a hospital and expected to recover.
Ralph Boisa, John and Clifford’s brother, who was not on the boat, said in an interview Wednesday that family and extended friends of the family had gathered to scatter the ashes of Maria Boisa, Ralph’s daughter who died in 2016.
Maria lived in Fremont before she died in 2016, Ralph said.
Ralph Boisa said his other daughter, Maria’s sister, was inside the cabin alongside two of her aunts, Carol Boisa and Clifford’s wife Jackie Boisa, and a friend of Maria’s when the boat was overtaken by a wave.
The four fought to get out as the boat sunk into the waves, Ralph said his daughter recounted.
Outside, some of the other family members had been knocked into the water.
Ralph said his daughter was able to escape the cabin, but Carol, Jackie and Maria’s friend were all trapped inside as the boat sunk more than 100 feet into the bay.
Officials have not confirmed the identities of the three missing individuals.
Others who survived included John and Miriam.
Clifford Boisa was recovered from the water but later died.
Officials confirmed witnesses reports there were passengers inside the boat’s cabin as it sunk and that it’s possible they remained trapped as the boat sunk.
San Francisco police officers received an emergency call around 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday and rushed by boat to the scene, finding multiple people in need of rescue, some without life jackets.
Responders found Clifford Boisa in severe distress and attempted CPR.
They brought him to Gashouse Cove Marina, the fueling station that served as the site of the emergency operation, where he was pronounced dead.
Christine Kaplan, owner and operator of Gashouse Cove, said that a U.S.
Coast Guard boat and the Bass Tub charter boat started to arrive with the rest of the victims.
They were “in all sorts of conditions,” she said.
“There were leg injuries, there were head injuries.”
The survivors shivered, their clothes dripping wet.
“These people were not set to go for a swim,” Kaplan said.
“Given their age and physical condition, I think it is absolutely remarkable that there wasn’t more fatalities.”
A dog aboard the boat also died.
After the initial rescue efforts — which included several agencies from both sides of the bay as well as boaters on private vessels — the U.S.
Coast Guard and San Francisco fire crews continued searching for the missing passengers through Tuesday night using boats, aircraft, thermal imaging and tide-modeling technology.
Officials said they would work with a private company to see whether the boat could be recovered, but it hasn’t been located and is sunk at a lower depth than divers can go, so a submersible vessel is needed.
The cabin cruiser belonged to John Boisa, a political consultant based in Stockton, and had departed from the San Francisco Marina Yacht Harbor, which is adjacent to the St.
Francis Yacht Club east of Crissy Field.
Crispen said the group aboard the Volare consisted of relatives and others who knew each other and had gathered for a memorial on the bay, where visitors often spread ashes to honor loved ones.
On Wednesday morning, John Boisa, his wife, son and another woman pulled into the driveway of their Stockton home.
He wore a gray sweatshirt with yellow socks and no shoes.
“All of us are grieving during this time,” Boisa said and declined to answer any further questions about the victims or why they were on the boat.
Witnesses in the bay at the time of the boat’s sinking described a chaotic scene as multiple private vessels pulled up to help rescue those stranded in the choppy waters.
James Kim said he was on a cruise with colleagues when he saw the vessel, already mostly submerged, in the water.
“You could see a ton of the stuff from inside the boat floating, like cushions and even a random kayak,” Kim said.
“There was a stand-up paddleboard with at least three people hanging off of it.
It was a crazy scene.
In all directions, (there was) random junk just floating.”
A photo from around 3:40 p.m. shows people still on the top deck of the boat, with one person hanging onto the side.
Kim said he did not personally see people wearing life jackets, though he saw life jackets floating in the water.
Kaplan of Gashouse Cove Marina said rescued boat passengers brought to the marina were wearing life jackets.
Some witnesses, including a fishing boat captain, reported what appeared to be smoke coming from the craft, but San Francisco police officers who first reached the boat determined it was steam.
Authorities found no evidence of a fire.
Witnesses said that someone on a kiteboard, windsurfing board or stand-up paddleboard had assisted people who were hanging onto the board.
The cause of the sinking remained under investigation.
Emergency responders brought the 13 uninjured survivors to Fort Mason, where they received assistance from the San Francisco Human Services Agency and the American Red Cross.
A few left the assistance center in bare feet, wrapped in thin white blankets stamped with the Red Cross logo.
The ongoing search for the three missing passengers is complicated by the unusually deep waters where the boat sank.
Though most of the bay is less than 30 feet deep, officials estimate that the boat sank along a shipping channel used by container ships heading toward the Port of Oakland.
It could be 120 feet deep.
That made it impossible for fire department divers, who can’t safely dive below 60 feet, to reach the boat and determine whether any passengers remained inside, said Lt.
Mariano Elias, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department.
The waters around Alcatraz can turn rough quickly.
Richmond police Lt.
Joseph England estimated Tuesday’s swells at 4 to 6 feet and described the sea conditions as “very poor.”
The National Weather Service’s afternoon marine forecast had called for southwest winds of up to 17 miles per hour.
Actual winds near the Golden Gate were stronger.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration station at Fort Point, about 2½ miles west of the accident site, measured sustained winds of 20 to 22 mph and gusts up to 30 mph at the time of the incident.
On Tuesday, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie thanked the agencies that contributed to the rescue effort, writing on social media that “the work our first responders have done so far today has been nothing short of heroic.”
Michael Barba, Megan Cassidy, Aldo Toledo, Sarah Ravani, Alyce McFadden, Chrissa Olson and Greg Porter contributed to this report.
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