Boats

HOT ITEM: So what kind of boat does sell nowadays? The floating equivalent of a golf cart. . . . The Duffy Electric Boat Co., started here in 1970, turns out 16- to 21-foot battery-powered boats for cruising calm waters at up to 5 1/2 knots. . . . In 1985, only three were sold per month, but now, in spite of the recession, the factory is turning out one a day at $12,500 to $30,000 each. . . . Newport Harbor is still the No.

The recent resumption of K-boat races in the (Long Beach) Marine Stadium has produced, in my neighborhood, a collective sigh of dread that is equal in decibels to that of the racing boats themselves. Our homes are not on the water along Marine Stadium, but a few blocks to the east. The end result to the resonant volume is the same, though: shattered nerves, ruined weekend slumber and the feeling you need to run away from home. So much for my right to the quiet use and enjoyment of my property.

Buoyed by a strong economy, the recreational boating industry sailed to record heights in the last decade, with California boaters spending more than three times as much to hit the waterways in 1986 than they did in 1975, according to a state study released Thursday. In 1986, California's 5,035 boating businesses had total gross receipts of $2.6 billion, more than enough to keep the city of Los Angeles--with its $2.36-billion 1986 budget--running for an entire year.

Its mast down, the all-woman crew of EF Education was adrift in the Southern Ocean on Monday, 1,200 nautical miles from land in the Whitbread Round the World Race. The boat, sister ship to race leader EF Language, had been limping along under reduced sail for nine days after the main support on one side of the 85-foot mast stripped its turnbuckle threads.

Marshall "Duffy" Duffield completed the first Newport Beach to Catalina Island run in his experimental electric boat with calm seas, clear skies and no one racing against him. He hated it. "We would have hoped for a little more chop," Duffield said of the Saturday voyage. "A lot of people think an electric boat won't handle any kind of sea or weather. We built this boat to handle any kind of weather. We plan on taking it to places that are specifically rough."

THE head of the federal agency that investigates transportation accidents is pressing California officials to require mandatory safety instruction for all boat operators. Mark Rosenker, acting chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, met with officials from the state Department of Boating and Waterways last month to encourage the agency to pursue boat safety legislation. The agency plans to hold meetings with boaters early next year.

Federal agents Tuesday seized a 26-foot boat off the coast carrying 22 illegal Mexican immigrants. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped the fishing boat at 3:30 a.m. about a mile west of city-owned Torrey Pines Golf Course, officials said in a news release. Agents fired two warning shots before the boat's operator surrendered, but no one was injured, officials said. Sixteen men and six women from Mexico were aboard the boat, all wearing life vests and in good condition.

The Phoenix, a 100-foot glass-bottomed paddleboat, sank Sunday morning off the coast of Malibu, authorities said. A restaurateur from the Bay Area recently bought the Phoenix and hoped to transform it into a floating Cajun eatery, said Mickey Gallagher, chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's rescue boat section.

The Mission Bay Harbor Patrol cracked down Friday on violators of a new city ordinance that bars overnight boat parking on the beach near Santa Clara Point during the week. Officers impounded about 20 boats whose owners had ignored warnings and tickets. The ordinance, born of beachfront residents' objections to crowding along the bay, permits beach parking only on Friday and Saturday nights.