8 Rescued After Cruise Turns Scary : Venice Beach: Sailboat stalls, slams into boulders of breakwater. Lifeguards take passengers from craft, which later sank.

Eight people were rescued unharmed but badly shaken Wednesday when their 26-foot sailboat suddenly lost momentum and slammed into a boulder-strewn breakwater off Venice Beach, authorities said.

Lifeguards safely plucked the eight people off the $20,000 Islander-class craft, which later sank in 20 feet of choppy surf as it was being towed toward Marina del Rey, said County Lifeguard Capt. Tom Viren.

Sailboat skipper Rene Delorm, 47, who had borrowed the boat from a friend for a brief Fourth of July cruise with friends, recalled that the sailboat was dreamily slicing through the whitecaps one moment and knocking against the rocks the next.

“The waves shook the boat like a cocktail,” said Delorm, head waiter at Spago restaurant. “I was just hoping we would all come out alive.”

Passenger Jacki Moen, 27, of Hollywood, said the scene was straight out of a gothic horror film.

“White water was splashing high like in a Dracula movie,” Moen said, “and we could hear the boat banging on the rocks.”

A few minutes later, when they were on solid ground, “there were thousands of people around us and sirens blaring,” she said. “We were just dazed . . . our brains were mush.”

Viren said he first learned that the sailboat was in trouble at 12:30 p.m. when the craft was reported being helplessly propelled by 15- to 18-knot winds toward the beach swimming area.

“It appeared to lose forward momentum while trying to turn into the wind and away from the shore,” Viren said.

“Our first response was to warn them to stay 300 yards off the shore of the bathing beach,” he said. “But they were unable to heed our warning and the boat drifted into the breakwater and sustained heavy damage to the hull.”

A rescue vessel carrying six lifeguards was immediately dispatched to the stricken boat and arrived at the scene within minutes, Viren said.

“We took six people off the boat and swam them to a rescue vessel about 30 feet away,” Viren said. “Two people were brought on to the beach.”

The rescue was accomplished while the boat was “slamming against the rocks . . . in choppy surf,” Viren said.

Later, the boat took on water from holes gouged in the hull as it was being towed. It sank about a mile from the marina.

“They couldn’t beat the clock--it fell below the water line and sank . . . with the mast sticking four feet out of the water,” Viren said. “We are marking it with buoys to warn other mariners of the hazard in navigation.”