The Region - News from Nov. 18, 1985

Three men, stranded on a raft in gale-force winds after their fishing boat sank, were rescued at dawn, the Coast Guard reported. William Potts of Long Beach, the owner-operator of the 40-foot California Maid, and his two-man crew were found adrift about 40 miles west of San Nicolas Island, Lt. Steve Birdsall said. Birdsall said Potts and crewmen Saul White of San Pedro and Ian McAuley of Los Alamitos awoke shortly before 4 a.m. to find the boat foundering. They boarded the raft and drifted for nearly four hours in 8- to 10-foot seas and 50-m.p.h. winds before they were hoisted aboard a San Diego-based Coast Guard helicopter. Birdsall said the boat, valued at $60,000, was used to catch swordfish. He said the cause of the sinking was not known.