Fishing Charter Strikes Island Cliff : Rescue: The Coast Guard evacuates 29 passengers after the early morning collision on Santa Cruz’s north side. No one is seriously hurt.

A group out for a fishing excursion awoke with a violent jolt early Tuesday when their vessel rammed into a cliff on Santa Cruz Island, tearing a 6-foot-long gash in the hull and forcing a quick evacuation.

No one was seriously hurt when the China Clipper bashed into the sheer rock face on the island’s north shore about 5:30 a.m., Coast Guard officials said.

But the chartered fishing vessel was in danger of sinking when a Coast Guard cutter arrived to begin evacuating 29 passengers--including a half-dozen children--shortly after the distress call went out, Petty Officer Paul Manzer said.

The Coast Guard cutter arrived in less than an hour because it was towing a disabled boat nearby. It left that vessel to rush to the China Clipper.

“It was taking on water fast,” said Manzer, who assisted in the rescue. “It was pretty serious.”

Investigators for the Coast Guard and the boat’s operator, Channel Islands Sportfishing Center-Oxnard, had not determined the cause of the accident. But the vessel’s two captains and three crew members were being questioned and were required to take chemical tests to check for drugs or alcohol in their blood, said Rick Grant, co-owner of CISCO.

“At this point, I would speculate it was human error,” Grant said. “You know, accidents do happen.”

Passengers on the 75-foot sportfishing boat said they were not told why the vessel crashed.

Grant said the boat was being operated by second captain Chris Ontinero at the time of the crash. The China Clipper’s first captain, Joseph E. Villareal, was asleep at the time, Grant said.

“I don’t know him to be a drinker,” Grant said of the 23-year-old Ontinero. No alcohol was found in the captains’ quarters, Grant said.

The vessel left CISCO’s dock in Channel Islands Harbor at 2 a.m. Tuesday for an 18-hour excursion. The schedule called for stops at Santa Cruz Island to look for squid and Santa Barbara Island for yellowtail fishing, Grant said.

Villareal piloted the boat until it was in open waters and then turned the navigation over to Ontinero while he rested, the normal procedure for all-day trips, Grant said. But what happened as the vessel approached Santa Cruz more than three hours later is unclear, he said.

Jim Briere, 38, of Canyon Country said he was waking up from a nap when the boat smashed into the rock wall near Fry’s Harbor. The impact was so hard that the water in a bait tank came flying out in a wave, he said. He tumbled into a wall near his bunk and later sought medical attention for an injured wrist, Briere said.

“It was a tremendous crash,” he said.

Another passenger, Jason Faulkner, 20, of Fillmore, said his biggest concern was for his 11-year-old niece, Rachelle Thornton, who was on her first fishing trip, and his girlfriend, Belia Lopez, 17.

“I wasn’t scared for me,” he said. “I knew if I had to go swimming, I had to go swimming.”

Neither Faulkner nor his companions were injured.

The crew immediately handed out life vests and instructed the passengers to prepare to disembark when the Coast Guard arrived, Faulkner said. After the passengers were transported back to shore aboard the cutter Point Camden, a second Coast Guard vessel escorted the China Clipper back to Channel Islands Harbor, officials said.

First, however, Coast Guard rescuers used a pump to get water out of the China Clipper’s wooden hull, which had split 6 feet along the bow, Petty Officer Manzer said. They then raised the bow by weighting down the stern, allowing the vessel to return on its own power.

Damage to the boat was estimated at $50,000, officials said.

Grant said the 21-year-old vessel is “the nicest boat I have.”

It is equipped with radar and other electronic equipment that makes navigation possible even during foul weather. But it was clear and calm in the Santa Barbara Channel, and a cliff wall straight ahead should have been clearly visible in the boat’s lights, Grant said.

“It would be hard to miss,” he said.

CISCO has offered fishing charters out of Channel Islands Harbor for 30 years, Grant said. Last year, 45,000 people took excursions, he said. The temporary loss of the China Clipper will not alter operations because the center has five other boats, he said.

Briere said it was his first deep-sea fishing trip in six years and he had looked forward to a relaxing day.

“It would have been, but somebody stuck an island in the middle of the ocean,” he said.