Twenty people boarded a three-deck cabin cruiser called the Velari on Tuesday afternoon to scatter a loved one’s ashes on San Francisco Bay.
By nightfall, one of them was dead, three were missing, and the Coast Guard was searching the frigid waters around Alcatraz Island for survivors who may never be found.
What Happened on the Bay
The Velari, a 50-foot pontoon cabin cruiser, was approximately 600 yards from Alcatraz Island at about 3:30 p.m. when it was reportedly struck by a wave and capsized. The passengers were almost entirely members of the same family, gathered for a memorial service to honor a recently deceased relative, according to NBC News.
The scene that first responders encountered was chaotic. The massive vessel was largely submerged, its motor still running, fuel leaking into the bay. Nearby boats rushed to pull passengers from the water before professional rescue teams arrived. The San Francisco Police Department’s Marine Unit and the U.S. Coast Guard ultimately rescued 16 survivors from the water. Thirteen were uninjured and taken to a family reunification center. Three were hospitalized with injuries and are expected to recover.
The Dead and the Missing
The man who died has been identified as Clifford Joseph Boisa, a 79-year-old resident of Sutter County, California. A dog that was aboard the vessel also died. Three other passengers remain missing as of Wednesday morning, with rescue teams expanding their search into the open ocean west of the Golden Gate Bridge, as ABC7 reported.
The search has shifted from rescue to what officials describe as a continued effort using helicopters, divers, and surface vessels. The water temperature in the bay hovers in the mid-50s Fahrenheit this time of year, and survival time for a person in the water without protective gear is measured in hours, not days.
The Cruelty of the Circumstances
There is something uniquely devastating about a memorial service becoming the occasion for more death. These were not thrill-seekers or negligent boaters. They were a family doing what families do: gathering to say goodbye to someone they loved, choosing the beauty of the bay as the backdrop for a ritual of closure. The water did not care about their intentions.
San Francisco Bay is one of the most heavily trafficked waterways on the West Coast, and its currents are notoriously treacherous. The bay’s interaction with Pacific swells, tidal flows, and wind can produce sudden wave action that catches even experienced mariners off guard. Whether the Velari was seaworthy, properly loaded, and operated within safety margins will be the subject of a Coast Guard investigation that could take months.
What Investigators Will Look At
The NTSB and Coast Guard will examine the vessel’s maintenance records, its passenger capacity rating, the operator’s licensing, and whether the weather and water conditions at the time of departure were within safe operating parameters. Pontoon boats, designed for calm inland waters, are not built for the kind of chop that San Francisco Bay can produce, and using one in open bay conditions raises immediate questions about vessel selection.
The answer to whether this tragedy was preventable will depend on those details. What is already clear is that 20 people got on a boat to honor a death, and the water turned their grief into something far worse.