Point Reyes Light - September 28, 2000

Sailboat owner vanishes after hapless voyage

By Gregory Foley
 

Following a bizarre escapade, National Park Service officials this week are trying to locate a Texas man who apparently left the county on Sunday shortly after his abandoned 35-foot sailboat washed up on Stinson Beach.

The boat's owner, Jeffrey Lane of Irving, Texas, was last seen at a Bolinas bed-and-breakfast early Sunday morning. A local fisherman on Saturday had rescued the panicked man from his newly-purchased sailboat as it drifted near Duxbury Reef and arranged for him to spend the night in the town.
 

Lane - who apparently has little experience with sailing - upon his rescue anchored the boat in open water approximately 70 feet deep. The boat came loose and drifted south into Bolinas Bay before washing ashore on Sunday morning.
 

Roger Scott, spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said Tuesday that the Park Service was waiting to hear from Lane. The Park Service on Monday had to arrange for a contractor to remove the sailboat from the federally-managed section of Stinson Beach just west of the town center.
 

Recoup moving expenses

"We're still trying to get a hold of him to get our money back for removing the boat from the beach," Scott said. "The boat is safely docked over in Sausalito, but the owner has not contacted anybody and is still at large. It would certainly make it a lot easier on all the parties involved if he came forward right away."
 

The unexplained disappearance of Lane, who is described as being in his early 30s, capped a strange chain of events which began last week in Sausalito. After roughly two weeks of negotiations with brokers at Edgewater Yacht Sales, Lane bought the 35-foot Pearson fiberglass-hull sailboat with a check bearing his Texas address. At the time of purchase, an employee who had observed that the new boat owner was a novice gave Lane a rudimentary set of sailing instructions.
 

Eric Groneman, a broker at Edgewater Yacht Sales, told The Light that although Lane lacked familiarity with yachts, he was eager to buy the used, unnamed vessel. "He was very quiet and withdrawn," Groneman explained. "He had been interested in a few different boats, but he wanted to grab this one and not let it get away."
 

Too close to shore

Early Saturday morning, after leaving his car in the yacht harbor parking lot, Lane by himself sailed out of San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge to Bolinas Bay. Saturday afternoon, Stinson Beach lifeguard Pat Norton observed the vessel dangerously skirting the beach surfline before it veered north towards Bolinas, where it was later observed going around in circles.
 

Late Saturday afternoon, a Bolinas fisherman (who asked not have his name used) was hailed by Lane and told in a panic that the sailboat had experienced engine trouble. Upon closer observation, the fisherman noticed that Lane was pale and disoriented, and he asked that the sailor lock and anchor his boat before being taken ashore.
 

"He struck me as someone who was clearly in shock," the fisherman said. "He was thoroughly exhausted and spaced out, and was foaming slightly around the mouth... I watched him set the anchor, and then I came in from behind and took him on board and brought him in to the Bolinas Rod and Boat Club. He was very quiet, but did say he'd been out on the water since 4 a.m."
 

Gone, no forwarding

After spending the night in Bolinas, in accommodations arranged by some town residents, Lane Sunday morning disappeared from his bed-and-breakfast lodgings while the homeowners were at church.
 

Apparently without first checking on his boat, the visitor reportedly hitched a ride to Sausalito to retrieve his car, at which point he vanished. As for the boat, it had come untied from its anchor and with an unsecured sail at half-mast moved on its own toward Stinson Beach.
 

"A salmon boat tried to catch it when the crew saw there was no one on board, but they couldn't stop it," lifeguard Norton explained. "We paddled out to it, but it was locked up and we couldn't get the ignition started, so it finally just drifted onto the beach."
 

At 11 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard dispatched a patrol boat and a helicopter to try and locate the missing captain. The search was called off after the guardsmen were told that the skipper had safely made it to shore the previous day.
 

On Monday evening, the vessel was successfully salvaged and brought back its berth in Sausalito, which Lane had booked for a month. "He told us at one point that he had some business up in Seattle," Edgewater broker Groneman said. "It's really strange that this man has disappeared, but perhaps he's gone up there. We're just waiting for him to show up."