Boat Accidents Orange County

Though no evidence of foul play has surfaced, Orange County sheriff's detectives will conduct a criminal investigation into the disappearance of a Newport Beach woman during a wedding anniversary boating expedition, officials confirmed Saturday. Pegye Bechler, 38, disappeared July 6 outside Newport Harbor while steering a rented speedboat towing her 29-year-old husband, Eric, on a bodyboard, Eric Bechler told authorities. She was not wearing a life jacket, he said.

A 17-foot power boat exploded into flames in Newport Harbor on Saturday afternoon, prompting the owner and five guests to dive overboard, authorities said. No one was seriously injured, although flames consuming the vessel just 50 yards from the dock near the Balboa Pavilion created a spectacle for passersby. Gary Nelsen, a 40-year-old Balboa Peninsula resident, was taking the Silverline inboard-outboard on its first spin since he recently inherited the vessel from his father.

An appellate court on Monday upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Virl Earles, the boat driver who crashed into a concrete buoy in Anaheim Bay six years ago, killing five of his eight passengers. Earles, now 34, has been free from custody during his appeal. He will now be ordered to return to court to begin the three-year sentence handed him by Superior Court Judge Jean H. Rheinheimer. Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr.

Two young women suffered minor injuries Saturday when they abandoned their 18-foot powerboat minutes before it slammed into rocks and capsized at Huntington City Beach, authorities said. The women, whose names were not immediately available, were transported by Huntington Beach paramedics to Pacifica Community Hospital in Huntington Beach, where they were treated and released. The incident occurred about 5:40 p.m. when lifeguards spotted the boat motoring close to the shoreline.

What started as a simple day trip to Santa Catalina Island ended as a frightening ordeal for three young men from Orange County who became lost in fog and drifted at sea for miles before being rescued. With the sun shining brightly Wednesday afternoon, Jeffrey White, 25, and his brother Michael White, 20, both of Santa Ana, decided to take their family's 20-foot ski boat to Catalina. They were joined by a friend, Andy Baily, 20, of Orange.

The Coast Guard was searching the ocean Monday night between Dana Point and Oceanside for possible survivors of a vessel that might have caught fire and sunk, authorities said. Coast Guard officials received a Mayday call about 2:45 p.m. from a person in an inflatable lifeboat, Coast Guard Lt. Bret White said. "It was a weak transmission," White said of the distress call, adding that it appeared to have been made from a hand-held radio. A search was launched immediately after the call, he said.

Freshly scattered debris from a boat was found floating about 8 miles southwest of Dana Point this week, Coast Guard officials reported. The remnants of a boat's cabin, including bits of plywood and painted wood covered by fiberglass were reported floating offshore by the sailing vessel El Gato Grande about 1:30 p.m. Monday, Coast Guard officials said. A Coast Guard cutter and two helicopters were dispatched to the area and verified the finds, but the search was called off about 10 p.m.

An 18-year-old Huntington Beach man was injured while surfing near the mouth of the San Gabriel River on Thursday night when a 17-foot motorboat struck him and then capsized, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department said. Robert Mainville was treated and released from Midwood Community Hospital in Stanton with cuts and bruises. The accident occurred about 8:30 p.m. in an area where boaters are not allowed to exceed 5 m.p.h.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department is investigating a boating accident that sent two boaters to the hospital with minor back injuries, sheriff's deputies said Sunday. About 10 p.m. Saturday, Chad Christopher Douglass, 24, and Ty Harris, 20, both of Huntington Beach, were fishing in a rubber dinghy near the entrance to Huntington Harbour.