On the Harbor: From the HB Air Show to Harbor 20 Fleet races

H20 Fleet Champ   Photo by Tom Walker

                                                    By LEN BOSE
I am sure most of you have recognized that the sun is setting earlier and the cool breeze is in the air. The time has come again begrudgingly to let go of summer and prepare for the winter months on the harbor. This is also indicated by the thundering sound of military jets overhead, followed by car alarms bring activated down my street. On the harbor, it’s the armada of boats leaving the harbor in the late morning and returning in the late afternoon to view the airshow. All the while, the Harbor 20s fleet championships take place in the five points area and the sea lions return to mark their territory within the harbor.

The amount of boat traffic in the harbor is fantastic this time of year, with everyone and their brother headed out to Huntington Beach Pier to watch the airshow aboard everything from mega yachts to jet skis. Combine this with the same type of vessels headed down from Huntington Harbour, and just like that, I am flashing back to Cal Jam 1. I have never taken the time to watch the show from the water because I live right under the airshow, so I called my good friend Tim Richley, who owns the racing sailboat Amante for his viewpoint. “I went out Friday and Sunday and it was fun as always. This was the third year I have done it and the show is right on top of you. People are swimming and having a good time, with the Coast Guard Cutter, Homeland Security and the O.C. Sheriffs keeping an eye on everyone. We just idle around and try to stay in the same spot with over 300 boats out there from 14’ open-ended ski boats to ships over 150 feet. We sailed back both days, so most of the traffic powered back into the harbor before us. All in all, it was fun, and we returned to the slip by 6 p.m.,” Richley shared. 

Under the thunder of the airshow this past weekend, Harbor 20 Fleet One was creating a bit of a rumble themselves. While H20s don’t break the sound barrier, some of the mark roundings might have seemed like it, as the boat skippers discussed their boat rights while rounding the different marks of the race course. The weather could not have been better with sunshine and a light breeze out of the west. Twenty-five boats showed up, split up in three different divisions: A, B and C. On Saturday, the race committee and Matt Wiley did an outstanding job running the races, being able to run six races within three and a half hours. The current was coming in for most of the regatta and didn’t play a huge part in one’s tactics. Although with the light breeze, the wind oscillated throughout the day, which kept everyone sitting up straight wondering which side of the course would pay off. One of the many strengths of the H20 fleet is that out of the 25 participants, 10 are married couples along with four teams sailing with their kids. Saturday night’s dinner was again one of my favorites of the year with the NHYC outdoing themselves again. The camaraderie is overwhelming – blend in the views of the harbor at sunset from the NHYC and it just doesn’t get any better. Speaking of getting better, I need to work on my sailing skills on Sunday, because I just tanked it up again this year. I am going to point the finger at the Justin Cabernet that was served at dinner, yet that is something that I will have to figure out in the future. One person who did figure it out was Brian Bissel at the helm of team Bluebird with Charlie Boukather crewing. Results have not been posted yet, but I would be surprised if they did not stay in the top three finishers on Sunday’s races with Bissel winning his second fleet championships. Tad Springer and Park Eddy sailing Why Not seemed to keep control of B fleet both days, while Ruth and Paul Noring sailing Adrenaline had a tough battle winning C fleet.

Mike Kohl "Seal of the Day"

Here’s a couple of observations. It’s sea lion time of year and I noticed a large spike in the number of responses from the Harbor Department from 36 calls in July to 122 in September. It still appears that the Sealstop system is an acceptable deterrent, but my favorite is a sprinkler with a motion detector that showers down the sea lions when they jump on people’s docks. Figure that, sea lions preferring not to get wet, surprised me this weekend when I stepped on someone’s dock to adjust my jib halyard tension on my H20. My wife thought it was funny. My second observation came while attending the newly formed harbor commission meeting in Huntington Beach. As many have witnessed, it takes seemingly forever to make any progress in the harbor. As an example, placing the proper lighting on our channel markers, which I hear is very close to getting completed after close to four years. Seeing where the Huntington Harbour Commission is starting and remembering where the Newport Beach Harbor Commission started, we have come a long way. Looking back, it feels pretty good seeing what has been done over the years to improve our harbor.

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Clarification: When I was five years old in 1965, my family was living in Hawaii and I enjoyed watching Batman on TV. If you recall the series...one week you would see how Batman got in trouble and the following week you would see how he got out of trouble. At that time the weekly episodes would be flown over by airplane, and one time the local TV station received the episodes out of order. Before the show started, the announcer came on and explained what happened. “We received the wrong episode this week, so we will see how Batman gets out of trouble and next week we see how he got into it.” I still remember my mother’s laughter when she heard it.

Anyway, the point of the story is to explain that in my last column I mentioned that I should have contacted Lt. Chris Corn from the O.C. Sheriff’s Department first to confirm what I had heard and read. Like I had mentioned, Lt. Corn is very easy to talk to and he gave me a call when he read my column. So to “get it right” I need to eat some crow. 

The dinghy dock is now open from 6 a.m.-10 p.m. and so is the beach access. There is a beach drop off zone and 10 parking spots, 21 spots on the weekend. I regret not picking up the phone in the first place. The good news is that I confirmed just how easy it is to contact Lt. Corn and get things right.

Sea ya!

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Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.