U.S. Coast Guard suspends its search for missing 19-year-old boater

The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its role in the search for a 19-year-old man who fell from a sailboat into the waters off Centre Island and Bayville, it announced late Tuesday.

The Coast Guard wrote on Twitter: "After over 20 hours of continuous searches covering 851 nautical sq. miles, the Coast Guard has suspended the search pending further notification."

On Wednesday, the Coast Guard confirmed it had withdrawn all assets from the search until further notice.

Other searchers, including Nassau County police marine units, are continuing their efforts Wednesday to locate the missing man, who police said was with an 18-year-old friend on a 25-foot sailboat in Oyster Bay Harbor when he went overboard at around 11:30 p.m. Monday. Unable to locate the missing man, the 18-year-old then called a friend who took another boat to help search, police said.

The U.S. Coast Guard and police reported that after 911 was notified a multiagency search ensued, involving a Coast Guard small search boat from Station Eatons Neck, helicopters from Air Station Cape Cod and Air Station Atlantic City, as well as Nassau police Marine Bureau, Emergency Services and Aviation Bureau officers, the NYPD Aviation Bureau, Oyster Bay constables and members of the Bayville, Oyster Bay and Centre Island fire departments.

Online tracking websites showed an extensive search undertaken along the North Shore, covering not only Oyster Bay Harbor but a widespread area of Long Island Sound for miles in all directions from the location where the boater first was reported missing.

Police have not released the identity of the missing boater or that of his companion aboard the sailboat.

Online water temperature monitoring sites reported the temperature for Oyster Bay Harbor on Tuesday as between 58 and 60 degrees. The National Center for Cold Water Safety reports a person immersed in water between 50 and 60 degrees will experience a loss of dexterity within 10-15 minutes — and a likely loss of consciousness within one to two hours. Expected survival time in waters between 50 and 60 degrees is about one to six hours.

The incident comes about a week after South Shore speedboat racer James Jaronczyk, 28, of Massapequa was thrown from his 22-foot powerboat into the waters of Great South Bay. After an exhaustive search, his body was recovered last Thursday in the bay — more than four days after he went overboard and not far from where he was first reported missing, Suffolk County police said. 

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”