San Francisco Bay search suspended for 3 missing boaters after vessel capsizes amid 5-foot swells

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its hunt Wednesday evening for 3 radical who stay missing aft a vessel carrying members of an extended household capsized adjacent Alcatraz Island during a memorial outing successful San Francisco Bay.

The 49-foot compartment cruiser sank Tuesday day with 20 radical aboard. One person, identified arsenic 79-year-old Clifford Joseph Boisa of Sutter County, died aft being pulled from the water, portion 16 others were rescued. A canine aboard the vas besides died.

Authorities said the radical had gathered to scatter the ashes of a loved 1 during a household memorial service.

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San Francisco Fire Department and U.S. Coast Guard crews proceed searching San Francisco Bay for 3 radical missing aft a recreational vessel capsized adjacent Alcatraz Island connected July 15, 2026. One idiosyncratic died successful the incident. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

"Suspending an progressive hunt is 1 of the astir hard things we bash arsenic Coast Guard commanders," Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Commander Capt. Jarod Toczko said during a Wednesday quality conference. "Our extremity is ever to bring location families' loved ones."

Toczko said crews searched for astir 23 hours utilizing 11 aboveground vessels and 4 aircraft, covering astir 950 quadrate nautical miles and much than 1,700 miles of hunt way earlier determining determination was small likelihood of uncovering further survivors. Families of the missing were notified earlier the hunt was suspended.

Officials said the vessel was struck by a wave, listed heavily, mislaid stableness and rolled implicit earlier sinking. Toczko said investigators recovered nary grounds of the occurrence initially reported by callers, concluding that what was thought to beryllium fume was apt steam from the sinking vessel.

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Authorities said the vas had 3 enclosed levels, and subsister interviews indicated immoderate passengers had been wrong the main and little decks erstwhile the vessel capsized. Toczko said it remains imaginable immoderate of the missing passengers became trapped wrong arsenic the vas sank, though helium stressed investigators person not reached immoderate conclusions.

First responders basal adjacent a assemblage aft a vessel mishap adjacent Alcatraz Island disconnected San Francisco, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The San Francisco Fire Department said 3 survivors were transported to section hospitals and aboriginal released, portion 13 others were treated astatine a reunification halfway aft being rescued. Fire Chief Dean Crispen confirmed that 1 idiosyncratic and 1 canine died successful the incident.

A wide presumption of Alcatraz Island adjacent San Francisco, California, connected Aug. 16, 2024. (Loren Elliott/Getty Images)

Officials judge the vessel rests successful waters astir 130 feet heavy adjacent wherever it went down. San Francisco constabulary said crews archetypal indispensable find the vas earlier utilizing an underwater drone to measure whether it tin safely beryllium recovered. Divers mostly cannot run safely astatine depths beyond 120 feet, officials said.

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Toczko credited Good Samaritans, including adjacent fishermen and different boaters, with helping prevention lives earlier exigency crews arrived.

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"Those folks saved lives," helium said.

Officials said the recreational vas departed from the country adjacent San Francisco's St. Francis Yacht Club and had visited Angel Island earlier the exigency occurred portion returning crossed the bay. The origin of the sinking remains nether investigation.