{"id":403263,"date":"2026-07-18T06:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403263\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T06:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:47:22","slug":"sunken-boat-located-cause-of-fatal-capsize-under-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403263\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunken Boat Located: Cause of Fatal Capsize Under Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The SFPD Marine Unit said it located the wreckage of the Volare in the San Francisco Bay on Friday.<\/p>\n

Jul 17, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 6:11 pm PT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A San Francisco Fire Department boat searches near Alcatraz for two missing individuals after a pontoon boat capsized on July 14, 2026, in San Francisco, California. \u00a0(Heather Diehl\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Officials from the San Francisco Police Department on Friday located the submerged wreckage of the Volare \u2014 a 49-foot cabin cruiser that capsized earlier this week<\/a>, leaving two people dead and two still missing, department officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since Tuesday\u2019s fatal boat sinking in the San Francisco Bay, initial explanations by officials pinned the cause on a wave that rolled the boat, throwing some of its 20 passengers into the water and possibly trapping others below deck.<\/p>\n

The official cause of the capsizing is still under investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know the cause of that at this point in time,\u201d said Capt. Jarod Toczko, sector commander for the U.S. Coast Guard, during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gas House Cove in San Francisco on July 14, 2026.<\/p>\n

In order to drive a recreational boat the size of the Volare in California, state law requires<\/a> the person operating the vessel to hold a California Boater Card, and for the boat to possess basic safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers and lifejackets for everyone on board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco Recreation and Parks has confirmed the Volare was captained by John Boisa, 62, who is a former naval officer. A person under the name John Boisa was issued a California Boater Card<\/a>, according to Angelica De La Pe\u00f1a, a spokesperson with California State Parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Matt Juanes, who has captained his own boats as a commercial fisherman and charter boat captain in the Bay Area for the last 12 years, Boisa\u2019s decision to take the Volare out on a cruise toward Angel Island with 20 people on that particular Tuesday wasn\u2019t a safety risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing out of the ordinary. It doesn\u2019t throw a flag for me,\u201d Juanes said.<\/p>\n

Smith believes whatever happened was a \u201ccatastrophic failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming into the bay from a salmon fishing trip, he said he could see a plume of smoke emanating from the boat, adding that it may have been caused by water hitting the engine.<\/p>\n

\"\"A boat carrying 20 passengers sank near Alcatraz Island on Tuesday, July 14, leaving one person dead and three missing.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIf you have a hot motor, and if the engine\u2019s running and the water goes into the oil, the first thing it\u2019s going to do is make a pile of smoke,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

The only way to know for sure would be to take statements from the passengers on board and to inspect the boat, Smith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After locating the Volare on Friday with boat-mounted sonar, officers in SFPD\u2019s Marine Unit are now using a remotely operated vehicle to assess the wreckage, officials said in a statement. The department is working with partner agencies to evaluate recovery options and determine \u201cwhether it is safe and feasible\u201d to recover the Volare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The SFPD Marine Unit said it located the wreckage of the Volare in the San Francisco Bay on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-403263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}