Yachts

A luxury yacht that belonged to executed dictator Saddam Hussein will be towed from Greece to a port in southern Iraq after the resolution of an ownership dispute, the Iraqi government said. The 269-foot yacht is fitted with swimming pools, salons, a secret escape passage and a rocket-launching system. French authorities seized the boat Jan. 31, 2008, after it docked in Nice. It is undergoing maintenance work in Greece, and Iraq plans to sell it.

Italy has blocked the nearly $18-million sale of two luxury yachts believed to have been bound for North Korea in violation of international sanctions, authorities said. An Austrian firm ordered the 95-foot and 105-foot seafaring vessels made in Italy by Azimut-Benetti luxury ship-builders. A Chinese firm stepped in later to complete the purchase, Italian officials said. An investigation determined that the yachts were bound for the reclusive communist nation in violation of international sanctions barring the sale of luxury goods to North Korea, the ministry said.

In a report filled with vivid details of disaster on the high seas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that a South Korean freighter was responsible for ramming and sinking a Santa Clarita family's yacht last fall in the South Pacific, killing two children and their father.

In a report filled with vivid details of disaster on the high seas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that a South Korean freighter was responsible for ramming and sinking a Santa Clarita family's yacht last fall in the South Pacific, killing two children and their father.

Lu Dale sails safely into port after weeks at sea. The sadness descends like soft rain. It's not a serious affliction, merely a longing for the sea. Dale, a professional skipper, is hit with it at the close of every voyage. Adventure ends, civilization looms. But Dale, of Costa Mesa, desires only the deep blue. As a yacht delivery captain, Dale, 52, is paid to sail others' boats over long, sometimes treacherous passages.

When Lu Dale sails safely into port after weeks at sea, the sadness descends like soft rain. It's not a serious affliction, merely a longing for the sea. It hits Dale, a professional skipper, at the close of every voyage. Adventure ends, civilization looms. The Costa Mesa woman desires only the deep blue. A delivery captain, Dale, 52, is paid to sail others' boats over long, sometimes treacherous passages.

A $1-million yacht originally reported as stolen turned up Monday in Mexico, where it was apparently taken in an ownership dispute, police said. Robert Cirac, 44, of Laguna Hills told police that his 65-foot yacht was stolen from Harbor Island on Friday. But Monday, police said the yacht was apparently owned by three different parties, including Cirac.

A 14-year-old Japanese boy on a solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday, just a few days after his country's news media had all but given him up for dead. Subaru Takahashi, believed to be the youngest person to make the 4,600-mile journey on his own, had not been heard from since Aug. 16. But a Canadian man on a small sailboat spotted the young voyager waving his hands and yelling for attention off the coast of Sausalito.

My husband, Paul, and I have never stayed at a bed-and-breakfast inn--fear of intrusive innkeepers and shared bathrooms--but the idea of boat and breakfast intrigued us. Which is why, on a recent Saturday morning, we headed south to Newport Beach, home of Worldwide Boat & Breakfast, a company that offers overnight stays on private yachts in Marina del Rey, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach for $150-$350.

Volcano, a 65-foot yacht, has sailed the South Pacific, seen the blue-green waters of the Caribbean and made the five-day voyage from Rhode Island to Bermuda. But these days the $300,000 boat sits in the quiet waters of Newport Harbor, its long-distance treks all but over, its purpose now to serve sailing students at Orange Coast College. Jack Batts, a coat hanger manufacturer from North Palm Beach, Fla., donated the boat in December to the community college's sailing program.