Gone Fishing : Refitted ‘City of Redondo’ Back on the High Seas

As dawn broke Saturday, dozens of people gathered on a Redondo Beach pier for an event some gave the reverence due a religious ceremony.

The occasion was the first fishing trip of the renovated “City of Redondo,” a 65-foot boat that sank in the January, 1988, storm that wreaked damage up and down the coast.

Although other, undamaged boats kept serving the rod-and-reel set after the City of Redondo sank, the vessel occupied a special place in the local sport fishing community--about 20,000 people rode it in 1987 alone--and its return to the fishing fleet is not being taken lightly.

“I first fished on that boat in 1956,” said Torrance firefighter Chris Johnson, 39. “This is like a homecoming for me.”

“It was a shame when she went down. It is like a monument,” said Oscar Torres, 31, of Torrance, who has fished on the boat “since I was a kid.”

The City of Redondo’s triumphant restoration was buoyed by an outpouring of public support and the sentimental attachment--and determination--of the family of owner Roy Peters.

Many who had donated money to bring back the ship showed up Saturday clutching handfuls of fishing rods and brightly colored plastic boxes filled with hooks, lures, leads, pliers, line and other paraphernalia.

Peters took the helm Saturday for the ship’s first paying voyage since the renovation, steering out of King Harbor past a buoy with sea lions lazing companionably on its base.

A fixture in the sport fishing community who has trained about 20 boat captains, Peters sank $450,000 into refurbishing the boat from the hull up, mortgaging three homes and obtaining a Small Business Administration loan to finance the renovation.

The boat’s loyal clientele kicked in $12,000 in donations and two crewmen--twins Mason and Jason Purkey--came up with the idea of selling T-shirts and caps for additional support. They raised another $2,000.

The basis for this fierce devotion is one of the most pleasant experiences that Southern California has to offer--rocking gently off the coast, waiting for a bonito, mackerel or barracuda to strike, listening to the lapping of the waves, thinking of nothing particular at all.

“You forget what is on land,” said Pat Martire, 48, a Van Nuys public relations man who got up at 4 a.m. to get to the pier on time. “It is a break in your head.”

Yet when the fish hit--as they did repeatedly Saturday--daydreaming is abandoned.

John Louis, 39, of Hacienda Heights, signaled each barracuda strike with a great roar of exultation. He roared often.

Another frequent occurrence was a strange ballet danced by anyone who hooked a bonito. The angler had to duck in and out along the rail in what was often a futile effort to keep lines from tangling.

Sorting out that kind of problem is much more to the liking of the Peters family than what faced them after the storm. One 14-foot wave had picked up the boat and flung it into the King Harbor parking lot. Another carried it back to the harbor and rolled it over.

“It was a nightmare--like someone shot you,” Peters said.

All that was left was the wooden hull, which had a salvage value of $5,000. The boat was insured for $150,000. A steel-hulled vessel would have cost about $600,000, so Peters decided to rebuild.

At the Al Larson Boat Shop on Terminal Island, the hull was recaulked the way shipwrights have been refitting wood-hulled ships for hundreds of years: jamming oakum--creosote-soaked hemp--between the planks.

Bit-by-Bit Restoration

New engines, pilot house and bait tanks were installed. Family members pitched in during summer vacations and bit by bit the City of Redondo was restored.

After the boat came in from its first fishing trip with seven barracuda, 130 bonitos and 44 sand bass, the City of Redondo was rechristened. The wine used for the ceremony was Chateau Napoleon. The bottle had been on the boat when it went down.