SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A boat that capsized on Lake Tahoe during a sudden June 21 storm shifted between two destinations before taking on water and overturning near D.L. Bliss State Park without issuing a distress call, federal investigators said in their preliminary report on the accident.

None of the eight people who died were wearing life jackets in the voyage’s final moments.

The National Transportation Safety Board released Wednesday its first set of findings on that incident that shook the Tahoe area last month, the deadliest boating accident in memory on the Sierra lake. The agency’s ongoing investigation, which has included interviews with one of the two survivors from the Chris-Craft vessel and witnesses, revealed new details about the lead-up to the boat’s fatal flip.

A final report isn’t expected until 2026.

The NTSB identified the boat as a 28-foot Chris-Craft Launch-28 GT called Over the Moon — built in 2023 and worth $393,000. The boat, which was owned by Josh Pickles, a senior DoorDash executive from San Francisco, launched with four people from a Tahoe City boat ramp at 10:40 a.m. June 21, according to the NTSB. It picked up six passengers at a nearby marina.

The group was celebrating the 71st birthday of Pickles’ mother, Paula Bozinovich, with some guests who traveled from upstate New York. Pickles, 37, and his wife Jordan Sugar-Carlsgaard had bought the boat last summer after purchasing a home near the lake’s western shore in 2021; Sugar-Carlsgaard remained home that day with the couple’s 7-month-old daughter.

“The report confirms the deep tragedy of this accident which claimed the lives of Josh Pickles, his father, uncle and friends,” Sam Singer, a spokesperson for Sugar-Carlsgaard, said in a statement Wednesday. He added that she “is profoundly thankful for the rescue efforts made by so many first responders and good Samaritans in the tragic situation.”

Wednesday’s initial NTSB report did not name any individuals or describe the context of the boat ride, instead providing a chronological account of the Chris-Craft’s four-plus hours on the water.

It said the boat spent between 60 and 90 minutes, beginning around noon, in Emerald Bay, a protected cove in the southwest corner of the lake. The boat’s driver decided before 2 p.m., as “the clouds increased,” to return to the marina, investigators found.

“However, after getting underway, the winds, rain, and waves increased, and he decided to return to Emerald Bay,” the NTSB report says. “After about 10 minutes, the operator made a second attempt to return to the marina.”

The report describes the deteriorating conditions on the lake, saying a camera less than two miles from the accident showed storm clouds moving in from the north and rain turning to snow. The survivor who spoke with NTSB investigators recalled seeing “marble-sized hail” and waves as high as 10 feet, the report said.

The boat’s operator, presumably Pickles, turned on the bilge pump after about an inch of water had collected in the boat, a survivor told NTSB investigators. But with the boat between 50 and 100 yards from the craggy shore near Rubicon Point, its engine failed, causing the vessel to turn broadside — perpendicular — to the oncoming waves, the NTSB said.

Before overturning, the boat listed to starboard, submerging the starboard aft corner, and started taking on water. The NTSB said the boat never made a distress call.

Eric Mein, a Tahoe resident who owns and operates Topside Boat Training, said the emergency likely unfolded in a matter of minutes.

“With any type of dire situation or tough situation, panic is the biggest enemy,” Mein said. “Based on the lack of maneuverability of the boat and the water that it was taking on and what was going on, I doubt that they had time to probably do a distress signal.”

One of the two women who survived put on a personal flotation device and “distributed PFDs to everyone else in the boat,” the NTSB report says, but none of the nine other people “immediately donned” one. The second survivor was “clinging” to a life jacket when she was rescued.

The report pinpoints the moment the boat capsized — throwing its 10 passengers, all but two older than 60, into 54-degree water as snow fell — at 2:57 p.m., the time when hikers in D.L. Bliss saw a particularly powerful wave tip it over. One of the hikers called 911 at 2:58 p.m., while another one joined a California State Parks lifeguard in rescuing the survivors.

A GoFundMe page identified the survivors as Julie Lindsay, 65, and her daughter, Amy Friduss, 40, who have not publicly recounted their experiences in the storm. The eight who died were Pickles; his parents, Paula Bozinovich, 71, and Terry Pickles, 73, from Redwood City; Pickles’ uncle, Peter Bayes, 72, from Lincoln; Timothy O’Leary, 71, from Auburn; Theresa Giullari, 66, and James “Jim” Guck, 69, from Honeoye, New York; and Stephen Lindsay, 63, from Springwater, New York, who was a husband and father to the two survivors.

Six of them were taken ashore and pronounced dead; the remaining two victims were later found 300 feet below the surface.

In the immediate aftermath of the capsizing, first responders found four life jackets and a life ring that were from the Chris-Craft, the NTSB said.

NTSB investigators later examined the boat, which they said a salvage company recovered June 22, and “did not find any evidence of a hull leak, grounding, or contact with an object,” according to the report. An adult and a children’s life jacket, each in plastic packaging and apparently unopened, and five inflatable life jackets remained on the boat. Investigators retrieved electronic systems, two bilge pumps and an engine fuel filter from the boat to aid in their continuing probe. They have also performed alcohol and drug tests for the eight people who died, with results still “pending,” the report said.

Chris-Craft Corp. and its parent company, Winnebago Industries, are cooperating with the investigation, the NTSB said.

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office is also investigating the incident. Sgt. Kyle Parker, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the agency’s investigation.

South Lake Tahoe firefighters who arrived at the scene of the capsizing just after 4 p.m. June 21 previously told The Sacramento Bee they found a Sheriff’s Office boat broken against the shoreline rocks at the time and two deputies separated from each other.

The preliminary NTSB report did not extensively address the response effort or mention that complication.

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