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The Region - News from Sept. 3, 1986

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A search for two Goleta men whose 14-foot boat capsized in rough seas just outside the Santa Barbara Harbor breakwater has been called off, officials said. The missing were identified as Michael Jay Sakotas, 31, and Robert A. Best, 39. The two men and three boys were in Sakotas’ 14-foot Starline outboard motor boat Sunday night when the boat capsized, police and harbor patrol officials said. Eleven-year-old Patrick Eugene Standridge swam safely to the breakwater, and the other two boys, Keith David Milton, 11, and James Edward Dunn, 13, were pulled aboard a charter sailboat passing nearby. Police reported the five, none wearing a life preserver, initially tried to cling to the boat after it overturned but finally began swimming ashore. The boys told officers Sakotas had been drinking and was having trouble swimming and Best was trying to help Sakotas toward shore.

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