By LEN BOSE
Because of the virus, I stayed away from June’s Harbor Commission meeting. This was a big mistake on my part, because a good friend of mine was terming out of his seat on the Harbor Commission after eight years.
Flashback! I wrote on June 26, 2012 the City Council selected Paul Blank as the new harbor commissioner, who will be filling “Duffy” Duffield’s topsiders. He’s very responsive, truly loves our harbor, and will make a great harbor commissioner. I first noticed Paul back in 1985, when he was sailing for UCLA and I was coaching the Orange Coast College sailing team. It was the last event of the season, and we were trying to qualify for the Pacific Coast Championships when Nick Scandone (sailing for OCC) told me he could win this event if he could stay in front of Paul.
At this month’s meeting while the commissioners were reassigning objectives, Commissioner Cunningham said, “Looks like we have to fill in all the Blanks.” That pretty much describes it. Over his eight years, Paul took on more than his share of objectives and has been one of the very few commissioners who completed their tasks. Now, please don’t take me wrong. We all understand that government moves at the same speed as a Duffy with 10-year-old batteries. Yet Blank was able to accomplish many of his assigned tasks.
I am going to go out on a limb and try to remember them all. The first that comes to mind is the public docks. Blank presented a lengthy report on the size range of boats that needed dock space and then applied this information toward the best use of the public docks. He also worked with staff on maintaining the docks, as well as creating new ones. One of the best ideas that Paul implemented was the meeting/harbor tour on the Balboa Ferry reviewing the commissioner’s objectives. He was also very involved with giving permitted harbor users the ability to exceed the speed limit. For example, sailboat races and crew races. This was a very time-consuming permit that involved several government agencies. He spent hours updating Title 17 of the City’s Municipal Codes and was extremely receptive to many of the different harbor users’ needs.
Paul has worked diligently on long-range planning and public outreach. I recall personally meeting him at least four times with many quick responses to my phone calls and emails. Over the last 12 years as the harbor reporter, no one has run a better meeting than Paul while serving as the chairman. His attendance, percentage-wise, matched Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played. Let us just say there are very few people who love and care for our harbor as much as Paul Blank does, and to that I give him a “Well Done.”
• • •
While attending July’s Harbor Commission meeting, I learned that dredging will start this fall in the harbor entrance with most of the sediment being placed along our beaches out about a half mile. The last channel dredging took place in 2003. This project will include rebuilding the boardwalk on the east jetty by raising the wall and widening it. The funding was acquired from the Army Corps of Engineers for stage 1 of the low bay dredging project. Council members, staff and harbor commissioners are all working hard to find the big pot of gold to complete the low bay dredging.
If I heard it right, progress has been made to open the proposed second anchorage in the turning basin off Lido Village. The last update I had was that a new Coast Guard Commander gave it the thumbs down along with changing those three remaining channel markers made of telephone poles that many people still run into. City Harbormaster Kurt Borsting has made contact with the Commander and reports a promising line of communication.
• • •
We had two big sailing events this past weekend with 64 boats attending the Lido Isle Midsummer Jr. Sabot Regatta. The top three finishers in division C3 was Caitie Karle from Long Beach Yacht Club in 3rd; was Olivia Corbin from BCYC in 2nd, and the person taking home the big pickle dish was Mesa Uliasz from BCYC. In Sabot C2’s, it was all Jack Bengfort from, in 2nd was Sophia Corzine from LBYC and in 3rd Kathleen Keller from NHYC. Next in Sabots C1 we had Zarrin Harvey in third from BCYC, Matt Andrews from NHYC and Victoria Messano from LBYC bringing home the gold jersey. In Sabots A/B BCYC Isaac Stone stole the show with six 1st place finishes out of nine races, in second was Caleb Everett from BCYC, and in third was Walter McFarland from LBYC.
• • •
NHYC revived its Club Championships with a marathon event over three days. The first two days was a Harbor 20 2v2 Team Race followed by a fleet race with two divisions of Harbor 20’s and One division of Lehman 12’s. I was helping out with mark set on Saturday and Sunday and the competition was intense, to say the least. In the Harbor 20 fleet racing it had 14 boats in two divisions. With three fleet champions and eight Newport Beach Hall of Fame sailors, there was no room for blunders. I am not clear on how the scoring worked, but the turnout was amazing.
Alex/Jake/Doug/Robert/Carolyn/Clare - 67 points
Jon/Gale/Brian/Perry/Michael/ Lauren - 74 points
Justin/Andrew/Bill/Maddie/Bob/Haley - 82 points
Sea ya!
