Massapequa boater James Jaronczyk missing in Great South Bay: Suffolk Marine Unit continues search

James Jaronczyk’s parents stared out at the Great South Bay from the shore in Babylon on Tuesday afternoon as police searched the waters for a third day for their missing son.

Suffolk police Marine Unit boats flashing with blue lights made their way across the bay a day after the U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search-and-rescue operations for the Massapequa speedboater, who witnesses said was launched into the water after his 22-foot Progression speedboat hit a wave about 600 yards offshore on Sunday afternoon.

Friends and family members of the experienced speedboater on Tuesday assisted in the search for the 28-year-old with their personal boats and drones. Loved ones said Jaronczyk's sunglasses were found floating in the area on Monday afternoon. 

His father, Joe Jaronczyk, said he was "hoping for a miracle."

“Either way, we just want to bring him home," Jaronczyk said. "We’re trying to locate him. We’re in search and rescue mode right now. So far nothing.  We’re waiting here until my son gets returned to us.”

Coast Guard officers searched for Jaronczyk for 34 hours, covering approximately 1,000 nautical miles, before suspending operations and turning them over to Suffolk police, according to Coast Guard spokesman Hunter Medley. 

“The search conditions have been ideal the last two days, but Suffolk has the area saturated,” Medley said.

Joe Jaronczyk said Coast Guard officials told him based on the conditions, his son had a 15-hour life expectancy in the water and that search teams had switched to a recovery mission.

But the family has not given up hope that James Jaronczyk may turn up alive on a beach or at a hospital. His mother, Rosanne Jaronczyk, called on anyone living on the water to check canals or marshes for signs of her son.

“If anyone knows my son, he never gives up. I know he’s out there,” she said. “He's strong, he’s a fighter and he's fighting … He’s got to go home. We need more people helping us. If everyone checks their canals, that’s one less canal we have to worry about sending a boat down.”

Joe Jaronczyk said his son was a professional boat racer, preparing for a race in New Jersey with his teammates in the Offshore Powerboat Association.

He had set out Sunday morning first to a car show at Tobay Beach. Then he practiced for the race before going to the Tres Palms restaurant in Babylon Village for lunch, his father said, according to what his son's friends told him. As the water grew choppier, he told friends that he needed to get the boat out of the water, according to his father.

Two witnesses near the shore, including a friend of Jaronczyk, saw him ejected as the boat hit the wave at about 4:30 p.m., his father said. They called 911.

“He’s a professional boat handler," Joe Jaronczyk said. "He’s been in life jackets since he was in diapers and won numerous races over the last few years. There’s no reason to believe anything was being done out of the ordinary. It was just a freak wave that threw him out of the boat.”

According to statistics from Stony Brook University, the water temperature Monday morning from Buoy No. 1 in the Great South Bay was between 59 and 60 degrees. On Tuesday, the temperature was closer to 62 degrees. A hypothermia table from the National Center for Cold Water Safety indicates that survival, at that temperature, would last between one and six hours.