Kissers Tenaciously Court Chance to Win Dream Boat

With his lips locked near the fishing boat’s bow and standing slumped over the watercraft, horseshoer Bobby Westbrook mumbled that puckering up was a miserable feat.

“It ain’t fun,” a drowsy Westbrook, 51, said from the side of his mouth. “If I make it, I’ll be lucky.”

Sitting atop a chair stacked with pillows, wearing a neck brace and mouth guard as she kept her head face down on the boat, Maureen Huertas, 23, of Garden Grove was asked if she also felt wretched.

“Huh huh,” she managed to mumble.

The two were among seven competitors remaining Friday afternoon in a contest at Los Alamitos Race Course to see who can kiss the boat the longest. The prize is the $15,000, 17-foot Century fishing boat their lips have come to know so well.

In a similar contest in Phoenix earlier this year, the winner lasted nearly 73 hours, organizers said.

When the local contest started Thursday at noon, 20 people were kissing the boat, which comes with a Yamaha motor. The contestants are not allowed to lie in or on the boat, and they are only given a 30-minute break every four hours.

One by one, as the hours passed, contestants were disqualified for breaking lip contact. One nodded off and his lips slipped off. Another’s nose got in the way and he had a hard time keeping his lips on the boat. Someone else sneezed. Others simply gave up.

Some of the long-lasting kissers said they planned to sell the boat--if they win. Westbrook, an Anaheim resident, wants to buy a race horse. Huertas wants the money to pay for her college education and remodel her house.

Jesus Vega, a 37-year-old cement worker from Buena Park, summed up his determination to raise cash for bills, making sure not to lift his lips: “I’m just hoping to outlast everybody.”