Yachts

Nicholas Edmiston, yacht broker to billionaires, ambled down Jetee Albert Edouard in the Old Port here, the premier pier at one of the premier events for the yachting set each spring, the Cannes Film Festival. To the genial, roly-poly Englishman with thinning red hair, the boats stationed near the street — mere putters that go for $3 million to $5 million — are something of a tacky affront. Most are festooned with signs for European film companies and promotional banners ("Mazars: accountants to the media sector")

On Tuesday morning, 80-year-old Bobby Salisbury took the last of his items from his boat moored at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington and stuffed them inside his gray Nissan off-road truck. "I'm the happiest guy today," he said sarcastically. For years, Salisbury has lived at the marina. Then last month, the Los Angeles Harbor Department ordered him and more than 90 other tenants to leave by May 1, calling the dock and 138 slips in Berth 204 too dilapidated to be safe.

Last night I dreamed that the Chancellor of the Exchequer went to George III and said, "Sire, the people have little money left after paying their taxes. What shall they do?" to which the king replied: "Let them buy yachts!" AUGUSTO FERRERA Long Beach

TheU.S. Coast Guardhas temporarily suspended offshore yacht racing in the San Francisco Bay Area after an accident earlier this month killed five of eight crew members near the rugged Farallon Islands. At least two races, one scheduled for Saturday, will be rerouted while US Sailing -  the sport's national governing body - conducts an independent review of Bay Area offshore racing procedures.  Coast Guard officials said they also were  "calling on all offshore race organizers and participants to conduct their own safety stand-downs during this period.

The ceiling in the master stateroom is something endangered--tortoise shell. The bed is roughly the size of North Dakota, and the master bedroom comes with its own barber chair. Also in the master bathroom is a secret passageway concealed in the linen closet and enough onyx to sink most normal vessels.

One of the biggest draws at the 39th Newport Boat Show in Newport Beach this weekend might not be a boat at all. JetLev Southwest will have demonstrators taking off and flying as high as 30 feet in the air with a water-propelled jetpack called the JetLev R200. Visitors can enter to win a free flight and try their hands at flying, hovering and landing. This is the second year Jetlev has performed demos at the boat show. Of course, the show is really about getting a firsthand look at more than 200 of the newest and flashiest  yachts, tugboats, sailboats, motor yachts and all sorts of pleasure boats.

A 27,000-ton cargo ship arrived today in port at Inchon, South Korea, to face an international investigation in the ramming and sinking of a yacht off the New Zealand coast in which three Southern Californians were killed. The Pan Grace, owned by a South Korean shipping line, apparently remains the sole ship not yet investigated in connection with the Nov. 24 sinking of the 47-foot yacht Melinda Lee.

Want more indications that the local economy is booming, at least for some people? Sales of large sailboats and motor yachts, while up just 2.5% statewide and 8.5% nationally in 1998, soared 21.4% in Orange County, according to a new study prepared Ohio-based Statistical Surveys Inc. The study, which was released by promoters of the annual Newport Boat Show, says Orange County yacht brokers moved 20.9% of all boats 30 feet and longer that were sold in California last year.

The Sequoia, that motorized, mahogany-laden yacht of eight presidents, has been a prized piece of Washington memorabilia since the federal government purchased it during Prohibition to chase down rumrunners on the Chesapeake Bay. Now it might be sold again. A maritime museum in Connecticut, Mystic Seaport, has acquired an option to purchase the 80-year-old vessel, which could mean relocating it more than 350 miles north of its current berth.

Salvage operator Ben Benson was searching for sunken Spanish treasure ships in the shallow waters near here when he found a piece of American history. Using a magnetometer, Benson discovered the Despatch, the yacht of presidents Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison that sank more than a century ago. The yacht, built in 1873, ran aground in stormy weather off Assateague in 1891 and was ripped to pieces by waves.

One of the biggest draws at the 39th Newport Boat Show in Newport Beach this weekend might not be a boat at all. JetLev Southwest will have demonstrators taking off and flying as high as 30 feet in the air with a water-propelled jetpack called the JetLev R200. Visitors can enter to win a free flight and try their hands at flying, hovering and landing. This is the second year Jetlev has performed demos at the boat show. Of course, the show is really about getting a firsthand look at more than 200 of the newest and flashiest  yachts, tugboats, sailboats, motor yachts and all sorts of pleasure boats.

SAN FRANCISCO — The winds gusted above 25 knots and the swells topped 12 feet. In short, sailors participating in this year's race around the craggy Farallon Islands, 27 miles west of the Golden Gate, faced typically grueling conditions. Then something went terribly wrong. A rogue wave pummeled the 38-foot Low Speed Chase as it rounded the islands Saturday, knocking five crew members overboard. As the captain sought to rescue them from the 50-degree water, the boat capsized and was hurled onto the rocks.

Harold Hazelton can't imagine living on land. For more than 30 years, the 76-year-old and his wife, Donna, 75, have resided on their 43-foot Grand Mariner at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington. That soon will end, however. "I don't know what we're going to do," he said. "I don't like living on land. I've been on water all of my life. " The Hazeltons are among 95 tenants who face eviction May 1, the result of port officials having labeled the marina's dock and its 138 slips in Berth 204 as too dilapidated to be safe.

She is 96 years old, all bones and little skin. Her ribs are split and rotted in places and stained by rust. Nonetheless, she is a slightly fearsome presence, commanding her surroundings like a T. rex in a natural history museum. When the Shawnee first hit the water in 1916, she was a striking beauty - a 72-foot sailboat made of old-growth oak and Douglas fir, African mahogany, naturally curved hackmatack and gleaming teak. Her hull had the seductive curve of a wineglass.

It's almost a rule of screwball comedy: The person you can't stand at first inevitably grows into a confidant or even a mate. Though they didn't become quite that friendly, playwright Molly Smith Metzler and one Martha's Vineyard trophy wife got close enough for comfort — and so simpatico that the woman became a major character in Smith Metzler's play, "Elemeno Pea," which opens Feb. 3 at South Coast Repertory. Smith Metzler, a middle-class native of sleepy Kingston, N.Y., had traveled to the Vineyard on a post-collegiate lark in the early aughts with the vague notion of gathering material for a newly hatched playwriting career.

Thirty years after Natalie Wood died off Santa Catalina Island, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced Thursday that it was reopening the investigation into one of Hollywood's most enduring mysteries. Wood, 43, was boating off the island on Thanksgiving weekend 1981 with her husband, Robert Wagner, fellow actor Christopher Walken and others when she somehow went overboard and died. Officials at the time ruled her death an accident, but there has been much speculation since over whether there was more to the story.

Ninety yachts turned out Saturday for Del Rey Yacht Club's 25-mile Malibu & Return race, the first of the 1987 Berger Series. For many of the yachts it was a warm-up for Del Rey club's 1,125-mile Puerto Vallarta race which gets under way Feb. 7. First to finish in the Malibu race was the Santa Cruz-70 Citius, under charter to a Del Rey club syndicate, in a bow-to-bow-battle with Jake Wood's 82-foot Sorcery, both of which will be seeking line honors in the Puerto Vallarta race.

Strong northwest winds Sunday were pushing the 28 yachts in the Marina del Rey-to-Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, race down the Baja California coast at a record pace. Led by the 84-foot sloop Christine, all of the Class-A boats had logged more than 200 miles in the first 23 hours of sailing. The race started Saturday at 1 p.m. and the position roll call was at noon Sunday. Fred Preiss, skipper of Christine, reported a 258-mile run, placing him off San Quintin, Baja California.

The groundswell of populist anger against banks and politicians picked up momentum in Southern California as powerful labor union support helped galvanize protests nationwide. Rallies extended to the 18th day in New York, where Occupy Wall Street planned a massive solidarity march with unions Wednesday. Protesters spent their fourth night camping outside Los Angeles City Hall, disrupted a bankers conference at a Newport Beach yacht club and demonstrated outside a financial executive's Bel Air home.

Royals fans who visit Edinburgh, Scotland, this summer can catch a new exhibit about Britain's queen -- and get a discount on tours of the royal yacht too. " The Queen: Art and Image ," at the Scottish National Gallery, celebrates the diamond jubilee of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The queen, one of the longest reigning monarchs in British history, has been on the throne since 1952. During that time, her image has evolved from remote royal icon in diamond tiara to middle-aged granny in party hats and glasses.  Given a substantial boost by popular media coverage of her late daughter-in-law, Princess Diana, the queen’s reign has been marked by a major transition in the way the monarchy is portrayed and the way in which it portrays itself.  The new exhibit, running through Sept.