Coast Guard Looks for Signs of Boat That Reportedly Exploded

The U.S. Coast Guard called off a search Wednesday night for a boat reported to have exploded in stormy seas off Santa Barbara with four people aboard.

No one had been found by sunset. Searchers in a helicopter and a C-130 airplane were hampered by rain and 50-knot winds, Coast Guard officials said.

“There are 20-foot seas and strong winds. Our crews won’t be able to see anything out there during the night,” Petty Officer Dawn Butler said.

The search was to resume at daybreak. If authorities could not find signs of the boat throughout the day, the search probably would be called off, Butler said.

The call might have been a hoax, which is not uncommon, she said.

Officers first got the call at 2:39 p.m. from a ham radio operator in Wisconsin, who said he was relaying a mayday from the boat. He said the vessel was about 25 miles west-southwest of Point Conception.

The radio operator said the vessel was named the Stroker. Authorities could not find a boat registered on the West Coast with that name. And no vessels in the area had been reported missing, Butler said.

The radio operator said the caller seemed calm but told him that the boat was sinking and that four people would probably be in the water by the time rescuers arrived.

Butler said ham radio operators--usually hobbyists--occasionally receive calls that the Coast Guard does not.