Boat sucked to shore, despite boaters’ efforts

Seven people emerged uninjured Sunday when they fought to keep their rented 21-foot Duffy Boat out of the Newport Beach surf by jumping into the water and trying to push it out of the wave break before it washed ashore, harbor patrol officials said Monday.

About 3:30 a.m. Sunday, a Duffy Boat washed onto the sand at the Wedge, the area at the southern tip of the Balboa Peninsula. Orange County Sheriff Harbor Patrol officials said the boat’s operator thought in all the darkness he had steered the boat between the east and west jetties leading into Newport Harbor, but instead guided it west of the jetties and into the Wedge’s waves.

When the group found they were being sucked to shore, they jumped out and tried to manually push it out, authorities said. The boat eventually ran aground.

Members of the group, who told harbor patrol deputies they had been drinking, were uninjured, officials said.

Lifeguards said they secured a line between the Duffy Boat and the harbor patrol’s fire boat, which towed it off shore. The boat is now with the harbor patrol until the owner comes and claims it. No one was cited for boating under the influence, sheriff’s officials said.

— Joseph Serna