Students uninjured after boat sinks Four students...

Students uninjured after boat sinks

Four students escaped uninjured Tuesday morning after the

propeller of their 16-foot Boston Whaler got entangled in an anchored

fishing net and started to sink three miles east of Newport Harbor,

officials said.

Three men and one woman from Cal State Northridge, all in their

20s, called mayday at about 8:50 a.m., said Tina Maguire, dispatcher

with the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol in Newport Beach.

Their boat was about 200 yards off shore when the accident

happened, she said. The 26-year-old woman jumped off the boat and

tried to free the net, but was unsuccessful, Maguire said.

Harbor Patrol deputies responded to the call, rescued the students

and brought them and the boat ashore, she said.

“What made it challenging was that there was a 3- to 5-foot swell

that day, and the wind was blowing close to 20 knots,” Maguire said.

The woman was treated for mild hypothermia and released, she said.