Boat auction reels in $9,760

Andrew Edwards

Regina Flores’ morning was hot and nerve racking, but she was able to

leave Newport Beach convinced she had saved thousands on a sailboat.

Flores, who lives in Marina del Rey, was one of as many as 80

people who made the trip to Corona del Mar Friday to hunt for a

boating bargain. In the end, she bid $9,000 to win the marquee craft

at a city-run auction -- an abandoned 31-foot Hunter sailboat.

After emerging as the top bidder, Flores said she had to resist

the urge to jump up and down to celebrate her victory, which followed

a much more tense experience.

“It was very stressful,” Flores said. “I was shaking; I was so

nervous. I didn’t want to look at anyone who was bidding against me.”

Buying the boat from a private party could have doubled the

Hunter’s cost, Flores estimated.

Flores made the drive to Newport after a husband and a friend gave

the Hunter a look on Thursday. The city claimed the boat after the

owner failed to pay slip fees at the Balboa Yacht Basin, Harbor

Resources Supervisor Chris Miller said.

Miller, aided by two deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s

Harbor Patrol, started the auction at about 9 a.m. Friday on a dock

outside the Harbor Patrol’s Bayside Drive station. The crowd started

to trickle away after the Hunter was auctioned off, and the bidding

stopped about a half an hour after it started. The last boats to go

were four nearly identical white sabots, minus rigging, that looked

somewhat weather beaten and worn.

“What you see is what you get,” Miller told potential bidders.

The final four boats were auctioned off for successively higher

prices. The first went for $20 and the last was won with a $60 bid.

Tina Caricari, who lives in Tustin, bought one of the sabots for

$40. Her husband Mike enjoys fishing and she phoned him after her win

to let him know he had just became a sabot owner.

“He was happy it was 40 bucks,” Caricari said.

Smaller boats that end up at auctions are often found lost at sea,

Harbor Patrol deputy William Nelson said. All it takes is a strong

wind to blow a small craft away from a beach.

“They all have their own story,” Nelson said.

The Hunter accounted for most of the auction’s $9,760 take. By the

end of the cash-only auction, Miller was left counting a fistful of

greenbacks that included a good deal of $100 bills.

Boat auctions are held sporadically, Miller said. Newport’s Harbor

Resources Division announces auctions whenever there are enough

abandoned boats on hand to make one worthwhile.

With the exception of one of the smaller boats that was found in

the county’s jurisdiction, the money from Friday’s auction goes into

Newport Beach’s coffers, Miller said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at

andrew.edwards@latimes.com.