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Son of missing Sunnyvale man remaining optimistic
By Kelly Wilkinson
The Coast Guard suspended a search for a Sunnyvale man who may have fallen from his boat while sailing in the San Francisco Bay on March 28. The Coast Guard discovered that Steven Petrovich, 47, was missing after a report that a boat had run aground near the San Francisco airport. Officials are treating Petrovich's disappearance as a missing persons case, according to Petrovich's son Daniel.
"I'm remaining optimistic, but it's sort of feigned optimism," Daniel Petrovich said of the fate of his father.
Two minutes after the initial report, which came from the airport at 3:30 on Sunday, the Coast Guard received a second call from a nearby boater, who reported hearing a cry for help, according to Coast Guard Lieutenant Tung Ly. The Coast Guard could not confirm that the call was connected with Petrovich, because the boater could not see where the call was coming from, according to Ly.
The Coast Guard called off the search March 29 after a helicopter and a San Francisco Airport Fire Department boat scanned the area for most of the night and Monday morning. The only finding was a windbreaker-type jacket that was identified by the family as belonging to Steven Petrovich.
Petrovich said his father was an experienced sailor who had been sailing since he was a teenager. The boat was only a few weeks old according to the son.
"He had just bought the boat and a lot of stuff for it," Petrovich said. "He was definitely used to sailing and it was a boat he was able to handle."
Petrovich said that his father took the boat out for a day sail Sunday and had invited his son, but Petrovich said he didn't go because he wasn't feeling well.
"He could have been chaining a sail or had to go up on deck for something, and slipped off," Petrovich said. He said it was unlikely that his father was wearing a life jacket.
"It's sort of like a seat belt," Petrovich said. "It's something you know you should wear all the time, but if it's a nice day, you probably wouldn't wear it."
There were no unusual conditions that Sunday, according to Ly. He said the winds offshore were high, but within the bay "it wasn't particularly bad." There were no special warnings for boats sailing on the bay that day.
Petrovich is a controller for an electronics firm in Mountain View, and his son said all was well in both his personal and professional life and his father was planning for upcoming sailing trips on his boat.
"I had been sailing with him a lot of times before, and he was really proud that I wanted to learn," he said. "He had a great outlook on life, and was looking forward to retiring and getting a big boat that he could take lots of trips on."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
