Newport Beach 2012 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Welcome to Newport Harbor 2012 The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly

Please use the below link

http://youtu.be/062yEa6bWJ4

It’s that time of the year again, for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of 2012. This year I wrote 39 stories, each year I review my column and itemize my stories and observations into the following categories. 

THE GOOD: 

For the second year in a row dredging the harbor has been on the top of the list. The Newport Beach City Council and Harbor Resource Manager Chris Miller are down to the last few scoops of dredging the entire harbor. So much good was learned from this process including, increased water quality and marine life, the need for continues dredging and my favorite how the harbor looks without moorings. My story “Dredging may be a Drag” ran on 6-29-12.

The stimulation of The Newport High Point Series continued with Roy Jones aboard his J 133 TANGO winning The High Point Series Trophy for being the best sailed PHRF boat in our harbor. The High Point Scoreboard ran in March, August and twice in November.

This year we where granted 8 interviews with our harbors Movers and Shakers. Starting in February with Harbor Resource Manager Chris Miller, in April it was Mike Howarth and Henry Morschlad the original owners of Pacific Seacraft and Cabo Yachts. Then it was boating icon Marshall “Duffy” Duffield from Duffy Electric Boats in May. Followed by Jim Tyler of Island Marine fuel in July, Eberisto “Abe” Parra from Larsons Shipyard and Mandy McDonnell the founder of “Paddle for Privates” in October. We closed out the year by visiting with BYC assistant dock master Ray Dasilva the Harbor 20 Dream Team John Cazier and Richard Blatterman. I would like to thank you all again for setting down with me this last year.

THE BAD;

I wrote a story “My Take on The Aegean Tragedy” in May of this year which brought over 800 hits to my blog site. This was my take on how the four sailors lost their lives in this years Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race.

I still continue to explain to our City Council through or Harbor Commission and Water Quality Board the need for a Marine Recycling Centers. Going on year 4 now with everyone telling me it’s a great idea, yet nothing gets done.

The Story I wrote on November 1st “ Why is business so slow?” when I asked Why is the marine industry so flat in the best harbor in the world? At the end of the story I made reference to my efforts to obtain 8 parking permits for the winners of The Newport High Point Series. 

THE UGLY:

Tidelands Permits, what will come of all the increase’s placed on the permits this year? I wrote on this issue over 6 times this year.

The proposed boycott of this months Boat Parade by the “Stop The Dock Tax” found in my November 1st column. To me, “poop happens” but this boycott smells worse than the sewage spill when the dredging vessel broke the main sewage line off Little Balboa island this year.

This observation was made during my interview with John Cazier when John added, "This place would be a different world if we took all these moored boats and placed them onto a floating marina. Floating docks are a big change to try to institute. Every square foot of water out there is worth a lot of money and we are using it very badly." The more I think about this issue the more I agree with John. The moorings are ugly and we are not using the space correctly.

The Balboa Islands seawall restoration consulting fees coming from the tidelands fund? Stay turned and get involved in 2013 harbor issues. Should you like to reread any of the above stories go online to The Daily Pilots web page then plug in Len Bose into the Pilots search bar, all my stories will appear.  

Sea ya