On the Harbor: Labor Day weekend “raft-up,” dredging and slips

 

This photo best express the news I have this month,  Photo courtesy of The Balboa Angling Club

By LEN BOSE

I am a little behind this week realizing that I can’t wear white any longer this year. Of course, they’re a lot more reasons a man of my age should not wear white at any time.

Another thing you should not do is show up in the East Anchorage on Labor Day and exceed the permitted size of your raft-up party. I’ve only been able to pick up bits and pieces of all the excitement that erupted during a permitted raft-up party this last Sunday over Labor Day weekend. My understanding is that an individual applied and received a Marine Activities Permit to have a raft-up in the East Anchorage. Anytime two or more boats side-tie to each other in our anchorages it’s considered a “raft-up.” The raft-up substantially exceeded the permitted amount of vessels and was quickly spiraling out of control. “There was no doubt the situation was coming to a breaking point, with one of the vessels having a DJ aboard with the music cranked to 10. There was a lot of jiggling going on which was rather entertaining,” said one of my sources. Other people told me the event was being called “Boat Coachella.”

Enter City Harbormaster Paul Blank who had to defuse the situation before the eruption. Because this was a city code violation, this task fell upon Blank who made numerous attempts, while showing tremendous patience, with the organizers of the raft-up. With the water in the anchorages coming to a boiling point, Blank had to call in the reserves. Two uniformed police officers were picked up by boat and taken to the raft-up to simmer down the waters. I’m not able to quote Blank from this month’s Harbor Commission meeting, but I do recall he was not pleased with how the situation was resolved while mentioning this was a first for our harbor. He learned a lot and I got the sense Blank has plans on never allowing the waters to reach those temperatures again. Two of the harbor commissioners, that were within the anchorage, gave Blank a “well done” on handling the situation.

Earlier at this month’s meeting, Public Works Manager Chris Miller updated the commission regarding the dredging of the harbor entrance and the upper bay. Although delayed because of the number of southerly swells this summer, the harbor entrance dredging is coming to an end this Saturday while staying on schedule for the remainder of the lower bay. The algae Caulerpa, which makes me think of a baby burping something up onto their bib, has been contained and removed from the China Beach area. This is still a huge concern, as it can become a potentially invasive species if released into an environment it is not native to. You can learn more about Caulerpa at www.newportbeachca.gov/home/showdocument?id=1218. I still have a hard time understanding how this could happen, as this algae is used in saltwater aquariums. Someone must have taken their aquarium down to China Beach and freed Nemo. Doing this is very, very bad, so should you notice anyone taking Nemo and his friends down to the water’s edge, please ask them to STOP!

Nemo is not the only gorilla in the room; another issue around the harbor is capacity. I’m not sure if you have noticed this year that there are “No Rooms for Rent” or I should say “slips” under 35 feet for rent. In an effort to release the pressure on the demand for this size range of storage, the term flexibility must be introduced. Specifically in the use of our harbor’s moorings, the need for a Multiple Vessel Mooring System (MVMS) will be brought to the top of the yellow pad. What is MVMS? The simple answer is what you might have noticed in front of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club and the Balboa Yacht Club when you see a 20’ x 8’ dock attached to a one-point mooring ball. On either side of the dock, you have a 20-foot boat. This is an extremely important topic for someone who has a 20-foot boat and their slip rent has gone from $600 a month to $1,100. Some of you might say, “Ahh poor little ‘Only Child’ can’t go play with all his friends.” As many of you might have noticed, the harbor is my life with plenty of boaters in the same predicament as I am. We either have no place to moor or slips are way beyond our means. Therefore, I will need to take my time and explain the proposed solutions clearly. In other words, I’ll need to go talk to the smart people in town before opening my big mouth.

Sea ya.

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