Winter Sailing Series…what’s going on

By LEN BOSE

Balboa Yacht Club 2017-18 Sunkist Series

Courtesy of Joysailing.com

The Newport Beach winter sailing series is about halfway though its season, so I wanted to provide you with an update on races that will be taking place in our Harbor. 

Balboa Yacht Club 2017-18 Sunkist Series

Thirty-five boats signed up for this year’s four race Sunkist Series and like all the other harbor winter series it has been sailed in light winds and strong currents. The final race of the series just happens to be on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 4 with most of the competitors wondering how they will get home in time to watch the game.

In PHRF A fleet, Jim Devling’s shiny black boat “Carbon Footprint” has sailed very consistently and leads the fleet going into the final minutes of the game. Just behind, is team “It’s OK” that with a throw out, discarding their worst race, this series could end up in a tie breaker. It’s going to be close…let’s hope for wind.

PHRF B has “Amante” winning and if there is a throw out she does not have to go out on the field for the fourth quarter. Peter Wells sailing the J 120 “Adios” is in second followed by Seth Hall aboard “Marisol.”

In PHRF C, “Doubletime” has the overpowering offensive line in this series with three first place finishes and like Amante can sit the fourth quarter out should there be a throw out in the series. Tied for second is Brian Doughty J 105 “Legacy” and Bill McKeever “Reliance,” both boats with identical scores, this race will be close.

PHRF D appears to be a close one with Ray Booths C&C 35 “Altheris” only two points out of first with nine points to John Szalay’s Peterson 34 “Pussycat.” Third place is tied between Mark Rosene “RD” and Roger Gooding “Rhythm” both with 11 points. This series will be a barn burner with some of the best racing in the harbor. Now I really want the wind to show up!

PHRF E has another close game going on with Gavin Herbert Rhodes 41 “Madness” in first place with nine points. Followed closely by Caleb Everett’s Moore 24 “Tortuga.” All good stuff, so make sure you tune in.

Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club Rum Series

Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club Hot Rum 2017-18 Series

Jan. 21 will be the last race of the three-part Hot Rum Series. Twenty-seven boats have entered and are split up in three PHRF classes and have been greeted with light winds and strong currents.

In PHRF A, The Richley Family sailing the mighty “Amante” has a thee point lead over Russell Grant’s “Wild Thing,” and in a close third is Bill McKeever’s well sailed “Reliance.”

Next up is PHRF B with Joe Degenhardt’s “Lickity Split” in third, Larry Kilger’s “Healer” in second and “Pussycat” with a strong lead in first.

PHRF C has Emile Pilafidis sailing “Party Globe” in third, Bob McDonald aboard “Undecided” is in second and with another strong lead, Bob Wineat is at the helm of “Carioca.”

Newport Harbor Yacht Club Winter Series

NHYC 2017-18 Winter Series

Forty-four Harbor 20’s have entered Newport Harbor’s Yacht Club’s Winter Series this season. Racing has been close and the winds have been light as we approach the last race in the series on February 4. First race is an hour earlier at 12 p.m., because the start of some silly football game!

In Harbor 20 C fleet, Kathryn Reed’s “Wood in it be Nice” is leading going into the fourth quarter by six points to Mike Kohl aboard “A Tack Dragon” in second. Ross Watanabe is in third and only 11 points out of first.

In B Fleet, Doug Rastello brought in fleet champ Bill Menninger as his front line and they have rolled through the competition. Chris Allen racing his boat “Zephyr” with Walter Johnson as his crew are not known to give up, even though it appears the fat lady is clearing her voice. Allen is 15 points back and might just show up with a Cal Bears hats on and pull something out of his sail bag.

A fleet has “Shana’s Secret” with Mark Conzelman at the helm with a six point lead and has been the only team to keep a perfect attendance in the series. Conzelman will have to keep his head down and not look up at the game monitor going into the last quarter of the series. Should he decide to look up, he will see a yellow boat by the name of “Ping” with Anne and Kurt Wiese chasing him down. Over the last six races, team Wiese has not finished out of the top three and no one has thrown a flag at them.

Get out and enjoy the races!

PLEASE THANK BRONNY FOR THE PHOTOS!

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On the Harbor: How will sea level rise affect you?

By LEN BOSE

Going out onto the harbor this week, with the fog rolling in, left me with a surreal feeling to the start of the new year. I could not make out what was ahead of me, yet I knew that something big was approaching though the fog even though I could not hear it.

With the King tides (the very highest tides) creating the extreme water flow in the harbor this week, my mind keeps going back, as far as five years ago, with the concerns of sea level rise. Back then and now, Balboa Island’s sea walls are of major concern. The now disbanded Tidelands committee along with city staff looked into everything from complete sea wall replacement to a tidal gate at the entrance to the harbor. After it was all said and done, city council decided to monitor sea level over the years.

Now the way my mind works, is you go out to your favorite dock pylon, at low tide, and place a type of measuring system on it. Guess what? It’s not that simple…what a surprise. About three years ago, I asked around where and how has the city been monitoring sea level rise? I received answers such as “I am not sure, you should ask public works” to “It is a fed concern, not a city’s”. To me that meant nothing was being done to monitor sea level, but I kept asking and a year ago I was informed that a team at UC Irvine is monitoring it.

So, I contacted Professor Brett Sanders form UCI and met with his team, Adam Luke and Jo Schubert who are working on hydra modeling and 3-D mapping of the Newport Harbor Bay system. A year had gone by and I was able to get a hold of Jo Schubert who directed me to their completed map, which I linked to my blog at https://lenboseyachts.blogspot.com. Take some time to look it over as it packs in a lot of information. It has everything you ever wanted to know, including flood hazard in the harbor in the years 2035 and 2050, considering sea level rise.

If you learn how to use this map correctly it will show you the impact of joint occurrences of King tides and rainfall events: Visualizing the duration of flood waters on the Peninsula and islands during extreme events and visualizing how the raised sea wall on Balboa Island will impact flood hazard during tides and rainfall. The map will also visualize the frequency of flooding of the marsh in the Upper Newport Bay under different sea level rise conditions. This will inform environmental groups about potential migration of plant/wildlife habitat in the Upper Bay. No pun, but pretty deep stuff wouldn’t you say?

It all can be a bit confusing, so I would strongly suggest attending Speak Up Newport’s next meeting addressing sea level rise and now specifically it will affect you. It takes place on Wednesday, Jan. 10 with the reception starting at: 5:15 p.m. and the meeting with a Q&A occurring from 6 -7 p.m. in the Civic Center’s Community Room, 100 Civic Center Drive. The event is free of charge.

The following was taken from the Speak Up Newport flier: “No matter what your opinions are on climate change, the fact is that the sea level is rising. In recent years, both Balboa Island and portions of the Peninsula have been inundated with sea water during the winter King tides, reaching up to a foot higher than the tide tables. Although not new, higher tides are occurring more frequently each year. Just because you might not live on Balboa Island or the Peninsula, it does not mean you won’t be affected – even as far as Newport Coast. Speak Up Newport is presenting a forum with a panel of experts on the subject. Jim Campbell of the City Planning Department will describe what plans the City has for dealing with sea level rise and how it will affect all City residents. Robert Stein from the Public Works Department will explain the projects, including the Balboa Island Sea Wall project, which the City is planning to construct in both the near and long term. Brett Sanders and Jochen Shubert from the UCI team that’s creating the hyper-local flood maps for Newport Beach will present observations from their studies on sea level rise in the City. Such computer models eventually will be able to simulate flooding down to individual houses. Come and ask questions, and learn more about this topic. It is an important one for all coastal residents.”

To me it is kind of like turning on the stove timer when I fill up my pool. Hope you can make it.

Sea ya

~~~~~~~~

Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for StuNewsNewport.

The Harbor Report: Learning about sea level rise and flooding in Newport Harbor 1-02-17

Professor Brett Sanders of UC Irvine

By: Len Bose

I recall at the age of 5 attending a party at my Aunt Pauline's when I decide I wanted to join everyone in the pool. I just jumped in and ended up at the bottom of the deep end.

My father quickly came to my rescue, brought me to the surface and then started telling me how proud he was of me jumping in way over my head. I also remember it taking another year for me to ever leave the ankle and waist-high kiddie pool after that.

Why this story comes to mind while interviewing Professor Brett Sanders of UC Irvine in his lab at the Civil and Environmental Engineering building is beyond me. I guess it must be the fact that I was jumping in over my head again and was interested in learning more about sea level rise and flooding in Newport Harbor.

I happen to live in Huntington Beach in the low lying topography of the Santa Ana river flood plain, so this too sparks my interest in sea level rise.

Adam Luke

This story is not alarmist and I haven't started to build a replica of Noah's Ark. One of the first things I learned was that over the next 30 years there is about a 1% chance, in any given year, that we will see ankle or waist-high flooding around Newport Harbor.

Sanders and his team are working hydraulic modeling and 3-D mapping of the entire Newport Harbor Bay system, with the goal of creating a harbor-wide picture of what flood events can do. Two other members of Sanders' team, Jo Schubert and Adam Luke, attended the interview. In the new year there will be a website that the public can access and examine all the different features these maps will offer.

Jo Schubert

"We will be providing a tool that will bring the risk down to a household level and help communities to be better prepared for and manage flooding," Sanders said. "Decision-makers will benefit from a variety of different maps, depths and water movement."

One of the most interesting aspects of developing this model is how all the local information was gathered. A public door-to-door field survey was taken asking people where they have seen flooding in their neighborhoods.

Different city agencies were contacted and surveyed, including the Public Works, fire, sheriff and police departments.

"If you bring scientific experts together with local expertise and you allow them to work together to characterize the problem you get a tool or model that is scientifically credible and trusted by the community," Sanders said. "The need for flood-vulnerable communities to engage in a better conversation in flood resilience is imperative."

These maps will be used in a number of different ways. For example, flood risk mitigation plans can be made with regard to raising sea walls, raising homes' foundations, and making sandbags and sand berms. This will give homeowners the ability to better understand the risk of low-level flooding.

It will also more time to prepare by revealing the location, depth and strength of the flooding before it happens.

After flooding occurs these maps will help people understand which areas have been impacted, which are under water, blocking roads and how the community can rebuild. This model is a tool to help make decisions, allocate resources and manage risk.

Flooding around Newport Harbor can be triggered in many different ways. Upland flooding can be caused by a large amount of water flowing out of the San Diego Creek channel and into the neighboring floodplain. Around Newport Harbor, flooding is caused by high embayment water levels that result from a combination of high tides, positive ocean level anomalies from storms and/or inter-annual phenomena such as El Niño, and streamflow from San Diego Creek. The most severe flooding occurs with coinciding river flow, rainfall, high tides, sea level raise and waves.

Extreme events have cycles and I'm sure most of you recall the floods in 1983 and 2005.

"There is room for optimism, especially looking at the data over the last 20 years it looks like we are not approaching the extremely high sea level scenario," Luke said. "We are more like the medium to lower range scenario."

After coming out of this interview I still felt like I was the kid that was plucked out of the bottom of the pool and that I was way over my head in trying to understand all the information that was given to me over the last 90 minutes.

On the other hand I felt good that I had engaged the topic of flooding in our harbor and will do my best to pass this information on to my family and friends.

Please click  on this link...3-D mapping of the entire Newport Harbor Bay system,

Boat name of the week: La Marea Alta.

Sea ya!

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.

Comments from readers:

Great article Len! We need to gently goad our politicians to be concerned about, and act to ward against looming dire predictions of the distant future while being totally engrossed with immediate daily distractions. We used to have a saying in construction - "When you are up to your ass in alligators it is easy to forget that the job on hand was to drain the swamp".
Keep up the good work!

Jim (Jamshed) Dastur