Harbormaster Paul Blank enjoying some time on the water in his Herreshoff 12.5, named “Nate
By LEN BOSE
Everything appears to be going as planned this spring season with twilight sailing starting – Balboa Angling Club’s Lily Call harbor fishing tournament. Yes, everything is going as planned until you look over City Harbormaster Paul Blank’s first year at the helm.
I am going to start off by again telling everyone just how fortunate we are to have Blank as the harbormaster. In a sailboat race when the wind changes direction, we refer to it as a wind shift, if the wind has changed direction many times during a race we will identify that race as being shifty. Harbormaster Blank’s first year has been shifty from a seat of the pants sailor as I am. This wind reference would not fit right if Blank was a politician; he is a very good sailor so it should be fitting.
Harbormaster Blank took the helm back on May 3, 2021, and during his first year, he worked through an oil spill. I am sure you all recall the oil spill that occurred during one of our harbor’s busiest days of the year – the Huntington Beach Air Show. That Friday, the fleet headed out and many of the vessels returned with oil clinging to their hull. The next morning, the Coast Guard called requesting the harbor be shut down. Blank sent out his crew of harbor service workers to inform boaters about what was happening on why they could not leave the harbor. The Coast Guard was also looking for a staging area to clean boats within the harbor. The harbor’s next wind shift was in the form of an earthquake off Tonga with the Coast Guard throwing up the red flag again and closing the Harbor because of a Tsunami warning. During this last year, there were three severe weather warnings producing heavy rainfall in a short period of time. This is one way for a harbormaster to learn which boats in the harbor did not have working bilge pumps, then sending his crew out again to help pump out people’s boats.
Speaking of “pumping out,” the next wind shift came in the form of a sewage spill with 4,000-5,000 gallons of unsuitable water from an upland restaurant into the harbor closing down relational swimming, diving, and other water activities. Let’s not forget the unfortunate downing of the Huntington Beach police helicopter into the harbor.
The next big wind shift was a mentally unstable person borrowing a rather large yacht and then ramming it into the docks damaging four or five boats in the marina, then heading toward the Lido bridge smashing the boat bow first into the Lido bridge. Can you imagine Blank receiving these phone calls early in the morning: “What an Oil Spill, a Tsunami, a down helicopter, a sewage spill, and a crazy guy crashing into a bunch of boats!”
Now I would call that a shifty race for the first year at the helm as harbormaster. I have to assume this next year will be more of the same with illegal immigrants storming the beaches and event promoters planning raft-ups called Floatchella on Memorial Day weekend. Like I said, we are fortunate to have a sailor at the helm of the harbor that knows to tack on the headers and gybe on the lifts. For those of you who don’t understand the meaning of the last sentence, it means “stay on course.”
• • •
In my last column, I mentioned the Balboa Angling Club’s 59th Annual Lily Call Bay Tournament. I thought I would let everyone know who brought home the pickle dishes. This is a harbor fishing tournament with 4# test lines that ran on April 29 and May 1.
–Croaker: 3rd place was Rob Meinhardt at 1.03 lbs.; 2nd, Wayne Kircher at 1.12 lbs. and 1st place, Bob Middleton at 1.79 lbs.
–Corbina: 3rd place Wayne Kircher at 3.25 lbs.; 2nd place, Greg Taite at 3.52 lbs. and 1st place, Tommy Tupman at 4.52 lbs.
–Bass: In 3rd place, Jeff Macdonald at 2.01 lbs.; 2nd place, Tracy Decker at 2.12 lbs. and 1st place, Tomas Becerine at 3.53 lbs.
–Halibut: 1st place went to Joshua Kast at 6.74 lbs.
Remember, the Balboa Angling Club junior programs are among the best values in town.
• • •
Most of you have already seen it’s been rather sporty on the harbor this first week of twilight sailing. Yes, it has been “nuking,” “breeze on,” “Victory at Sea” and “Blowing dogs off chains” the first week of twilight sailing with the breeze in the 15-20 knots range. This kept most of the fleet, me included, on the sidelines earning their first kitty pins of the season. Week two has been much more civilized with the breeze staying between eight-nine knots. The Balboa Yacht Club’s Wednesday twilights have been the most active with 34 boats attending.
Sea ya.
~~~~~~~~
Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.
No comments:
Post a Comment