He’s Still Seeking His Dreamboat

Jesus Vega says the princess he kissed turned into a frog. The lip lock lasted 55 hours. And instead of the dreamboat he expected, Vega says, he got her ugly sister.

The object of his desire was a fishing boat. In a lawsuit filed this week, Vega accuses Yamaha Motor Corp. and Los Alamitos Race Course, among others, of reneging on a promise to give him a brand-new 17-foot Century fishing boat equipped with an 80-horsepower motor, canopy and tackle box--a total package valued at $15,000. All he had to do was succeed in kissing the vessel longer than anybody else.

Despite his “physically painful and emotionally stressful and traumatic 55-hour kissing effort,” the lawsuit contends, the boat Vega ended up with “was not a new boat, was used, had a cracked hull, had corrosion damage, was improperly and incompletely assembled, was in significant disrepair, was not properly licensed and certificated, and . . . has nominal value well under the promised $15,000.”

A spokesman for Yamaha could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

At Los Alamitos Race Course, a spokesman first burst out laughing when he learned of the lawsuit, then said he could not comment.

“I haven’t seen the boat,” race course president Rick Henson said, “so I have no idea.”

The lawsuit stems from a contest held at the race course in September and sponsored by Yamaha. The event, dubbed Kiss of the Century, pitted the kissing endurance skills of 20 boat lovers against the forces of fatigue, boredom and sleeplessness.

Whoever could kiss the boat the longest, the rules said, could take the gorgeous thing home.

The kissing lasted for more than two days. And in the end, the sponsors declared a draw between two finalists.

One was Vega, a 37-year-old cement finisher from Buena Park. He attributed his staying power to the avoidance of sodas that could cause belching, the gel he slicked on his lips and his concentration on a promise to his four daughters. The other was Maureen Huertas, 23, of Garden Grove, who eased the stress of the prolonged kissing with a neck brace and mouth guard.

Huertas got the very boat they both had embraced, and Vega was supposed to get one just like it.

But in the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court, he alleges that the craft he eventually received was inferior, and he seeks $15,000 in compensation.

After his September victory, Vega had said: “You do make a fool of yourself. But I tell people, for $15,000 I’ll make a fool of myself any time.”