Missing captain from Santa Cruz has $75,000 warrant for his arrest

Authorities say there is an outstanding arrest warrant for a missing captain who may have abandoned his fishing boat when it got stranded off a popular San Francisco beach.

Santa Clara County sheriff’s Sgt. Kurtis Stenderup said Tuesday that a $75,000 arrest warrant was issued for Timothy Lybrand of Santa Cruz when he failed to appear in court in 2012 after an arrest on drug possession charges in 2010.

The Coast Guard called off its hours long search for Lybrand on Monday after scouring an area around San Francisco’s Ocean Beach where the 40-foot vessel ran aground.

Lt. Theo Vaughn says a team pulled the capsized boat, the Paloma, close to shore Tuesday, but did not see Lybrand inside.

Officials say Lybrand made a call to other boaters seeking help and intimated he would try to swim to shore wearing a life jacket.

Vaughn says crews will focus on removing the boat.

The owner of the Paloma said he hasn’t heard from Lybrand, who last had the boat in Santa Cruz. But the harbormaster there has said it hasn’t been tied up there for a long time, KPIX reported.