Cell phone aids in offshore rescue

Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT HARBOR -- Harbor Patrol deputies on Wednesday night rescued

three men who used a cellular phone to call for help after their 36-foot

powerboat sank off the Newport Harbor entrance, officials said.

Nobody was hurt in the 9:30 p.m. mishap, said Orange County Sheriff’s

Harbor Patrol Sgt. Karl Von Voigt.

Voigt said the Coast Guard received the call from the three men and

then contacted Harbor Patrol and told deputies that the boat Breezn, a

Bayliner powerboat, sank about two miles off the harbor.

He said two deputies in a fireboat went out to sea and found the men

on an 8-foot lifeboat. They had drifted 6.7 miles from the harbor

entrance by the time they were found about 10 p.m.

They were taken to the Newport Harbor Patrol office and released,

Voigt said.

Coast Guard officials identified the owner of the boat as Len

Hamilton, who they said is an Orange County resident. The other two men

were identified as Curtis Green and Brad Martin. No further information

was available about the three men.

Officials are unsure what caused the vessel to sink but said the owner

believed a cooling hose to one of the engines may have broken, filling

the boat and sending it down.

The Coast Guard, based in San Pedro, launched a helicopter and rescue

boat as well, spokesman Lt. Rich Molloy said.

“But by the time we got there the Harbor Patrol deputies had found the

boat and taken them ashore,” he said.

The boat, however, sank all the way to the bottom of the ocean, Molloy

said. He said the water is more than 2,500 feet deep in the area where

the boat went down.

“We have no way of getting it,” Molloy said. “We haven’t received any

report of pollution or spills.”

So, most likely, the boat will remain on the ocean floor, he said.