The Harbor Report: Commissioner is leaving his mark on the harbor

                                               Harbor Commissioner Paul Blank                                 Photo Joysailing.com

By Len Bose

October 17, 2014 | 3:01 p.m.

This week, I had a chance to catch up with one of my favorite people, active harbor user Paul Blank.

In July 2012, Blank was selected by the City Council to sit on our Harbor Commission. At that time, I wrote, "He's very responsive, truly loves our harbor and will make a great harbor commissioner." As it turned out, our council selected one of the best and most productive commissioners I've ever observed.

Blank started to fall in love with our harbor at age 8, when he signed up for the city's beginning sailing program. He later attended Estancia High School and then moved on to UCLA and participated on the sailing team. The day after he graduated from UCLA, he moved to Corona del Mar and has lived there ever since.

Blank stays active on our harbor by sailing his Sabot, paddling his stand-up paddleboard, racing on the 49-foot, 11-inch sailboat It's OK and spending time in his True North 38 power boat.

When I asked him how he most enjoys the harbor, he replied, "Any moment I get to spend on the harbor is just a blessing. Asking me how I best enjoy the harbor would be like asking a parent to pick their favorite child."

Blank and I talked further about his role as a harbor commissioner and how he became interested in taking the seat. He expressed a keen interest in local politics.

"It's important for individuals to get involved and have a say in what their community looks like," he said.

During the last two years, he has set up a committee on stand-up paddleboards, should they be restricted within our harbor, along with making public pier recommendations. Both tasks were completed and presented in such a professional manner that it has become the standard for the Harbor Commission. One also gets the feeling, when observing this type of presentation, that the City Council can make a timely decision and things get done.

Blank is now working on the Harbor Commission's outreach committee, among other topics. An upcoming event to take notice of is the special Harbor Commission meeting scheduled for Nov. 15. The meeting will convene in a conference room in the Harbor Patrol facility at 1901 Bayside Drive, Corona del Mar.

The meeting will then be moved to one of the Balboa ferries waiting at the Harbor Patrol visitor's dock for a tour of the harbor. Copies of the route with waypoints to be called out on the tour can be found on my blog, lenboseyachts.blogspot.com.

Commissioners will address the waypoints about which they are most versed. The ferry has a capacity limit, and guests will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Blank explained that the best way to prepare for the meeting would be to familiarize yourself with the waypoints and bring all of your questions and concerns.

We went on to discuss the hot topics of today and his concerns for the future. The most important topic today is our RGP 54 dredging and eelgrass mitigation permit, which should be completed in the first part of 2015. Another important topic is the development of our Lower Castaways. Both topics will be covered during the special meeting.

When we talked about the future, Blank brought up water quality and the rising sea level.

"The harbor's water quality has never been as clean as it is now in my lifetime, and it must continue to improve," he said. "Dredging and trapping debris and contaminants upstream is an extremely important element in keeping the water in the bay clean. Progress has been made; there is more to do."

While talking about sea-level rise, Blank explained the non-alarmist approach, which entails monitoring the harbor's data points and adjusting to the information.

Like Blank said, "It's important for individuals to get involved and have a say what their community looks like."

I was very pleased to hear that the Harbor Commission has added my idea of day moorings off Big Corona Beach to its description of alternative anchorage areas.

Be sure to mark your calendars for Nov. 15 and bring your questions.

Sea ya.

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist.

1981 Trans Pac : Hawaii race has a long and storied history (This story is 8 years old)

Horizon finishing the 2019 Trans Pac

On July 16, I will be starting my 11th sailboat race to Hawaii.
Seven of those races have been aboard Santa Cruz 50s, and this year I will be a watch captain aboard the Santa Cruz 50 Horizon. Because of my passion for this race and these boats, I looked back into history and found the first Trans Pac these boats raced in was 1981, and it was a race to remember.

Seven Santa Cruz 50s made it to the starting line in 1981, and they were the talk of the waterfront that summer. All the boats at that time were very similar, and it quickly became a race within a race among Chasch Mer, Night Train, Hana Ho, Oaxaca, Octavia, Shandu and Secret Love.

Two of these boats were from Newport Beach. Hana Ho and owner Morrie Kirk were sailing for the Balboa Yacht Club, and Michael Braun sailed Shandu for the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club/ Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

These crews were among the best sailing talent our harbor has ever assembled — fierce competitors all. Now blend in the personalities.

The crew aboard Hano Ho was made up of Kirk, skipper; Peter Isler, navigator; Dave Ullman, watch captain; and Bill Herrschaft, Tom Willson, Kevin Kirk, Jim Laws and Dennis Riehl. Aboard Shandu was Michael Braun, owner; Peter Willson, watch captain; LJ Edgcomb, navigator and MacGyver; Dennis Durgan, watch captain; and Bob Burns, Marshall "Duffy" Duffield, Rex Banks and Gordo Johnson.

To get a better feel of what happened during this epic battle, I was able to contact Kirk, Isler, Ullman, Riehl, Durgan, Duffield and Johnson.

The race started July 3. The boats had a westerly breeze of 12 to 15 to take off on. By the time the boats reached Catalina, the breeze was at 15 to 18 knots and had lifted the fleet around the only make in the course without tacking. Of the SC 50 fleet, Chash Mer was first to round the west end of Catalina in 3 hours 12 minutes, followed by Shandu, Secret Love, Octavia, Oaxaca and Hano Ho at 3:19.

On July 4, the breeze had eased some. The night before, Shandu's cheek block on the steering quadrant broke and the crew had to use their emergency tiller. Navigator Edgcomb quickly put on his MacGgyver hat and went to working fixing the problem.

The whole time Edgcomb was down below in the very back of the boat, the boat moved along at 11 knots with a reefed main and No. 2 head sail up. His repairs to the steering system lasted for the remained of the race. This is not the only time Edgcomb would need to throw on his MacGyver hat for Shandu to make it across the finish line.

On July 7, as the sun was setting, the SC 50 fleet wanted to make this race a party and start a boat-for-boat race until the end some 1,217 miles away. Shandu and Secret Love had been in contact from the second night out, and at sunset, Hano Ho appeared from the north and the party started.

That pitch-black night, the fleet started noticing trade wind squalls forming from behind them. This is when the nights of terror started, Duffield and Johnson recalled. After the first night of squalls, Shandu and Hano Ho pulled out in front of Secret Love by some 35 miles.

Duffield said, "This is when the winds started a blowin'."

Ullman recalled, "There was carnage everywhere across the fleet that night." Oaxaca was 20 miles farther south than the two lead boats.

Dennis Riehl talking with Gordo Johnson

Dennis Durgan said, "That's one of the best Trans Pacs as competitive sailing goes. You needed good drives and trimmers."

The Santa Cruz 50s were new to the race course at this time. Later deeper and better-designed rudders were added, and these have made the boats much easier to control. In 1981, these babies were a handful, and both boats were pushing hard to gain an advantage.

Ullman said, " It was like being in a one-design race, on a short course. It was getting pretty tiring. No one would even get a lead over a mile. You would just push, push and push then get nothing."

At this point, the boats were 940 miles from the finish.

"The only way we are going to take the big spinnaker down is if God takes it down." Duffield remembered thinking.

Riehl the decision was made to let only the four best drivers take the helm that night..

Duffield said, "Night was so intense."

Durgan remembered, "Scary, scary sailing pushing the boats that much harder. It was nuts, crossing gybes on those nights of terror."

At morning's light, there was Shandu right next to the Hano Ho, Riehl recalled.

Keep in mind both crews are from Newport Beach and most of them where all good friends and had grown up together. From my understanding, this is when the crews picked up the VHF radio and started talking to each other. The conversion started something like this. Shandu: Hey, did you guys keep up your big chute last night? Hano Ho: Yeah we were hoping you would do the smart thing and change down to your smaller spinnaker. Shandu: Was it scary? Hano Ho: Ya think!

Dennis talking with Michael Brau

Over the next three days and nights the boats rarely lost sight of each other. If one boat jibed the other boat would follow. If the other boat would change spinnakers and set a staysail so would they.

Around 2 a.m., referred to as one of the "nights of terror," Shundu lost a spinnaker crane at the top of the mast that held the halyard blocks. The first thought by the Shundu crew, was to take the spinnaker down and make the repair when they had daylight.

Well Edgcomb did not agree and was not about to lose any ground to his good buddies on the other boat. He grabbed the boatswain chair — a device used to suspend a person from rope to perform work aloft — and headed up the mast.

Can you see Durgan's face as he sat at the helm and Edgcomb said he was going up the mast? Durgan had to have replied, you want to go where? Edgcomb "MacGyver" then went up the mast with a bunch of kevlar line to make the repair.

"It looked something like that osprey next on that power boat on the moorings in front of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club today," Gordo Johnson said.

MacGyver had done it again and as Peter Isler said, "It was all on" from there on in.

Going into the last day, Shandu was in the lead with only 205 miles to the finish, Hano Ho had 211 miles to go. As the boats sailed past the big island, the VHF radio banter continued with the Hana crew asking who was driving and why they did not have their big spinnaker up. Shandu had lost their big chute a couple of nights before and Hano Ho still had theirs.

The sun went down and the two boats split jibes in the dark as they grew closer to the finish line. When the two boats arrived at Kalaupapa point on the island of Molokai they both made their final jibe for the finish line under a full moon with dolphins jumping from their bows.

Riehl, aboard Hana Ho, remembers first surviving the jibe and then looking to his right and seeing Shandu just 200 yards away on their starboard side bow to bow.

Gordo Johnson explained the situation like this: "Have you ever wondered what your boat looked like while surfing down huge waves with the bow of the boat out of the water all the way back to the keel? Water flying everywhere as the boat dropped into its third consecutive wave. Well, he said with a laugh, Hana Ho was right next to us and I can't tell you how many times we exchanged the lead while the other boat caught the next wave."

Morrie Kirk the owner of Hana Ho said, "We were close to those guys that's for sure."

Peter Isler aboard Hano Ho said, "I was on the helm at the jibe at Kalaupapa point. It was very intense and exhausting. Both boats were pumping their mains on every wave and the lead changed a number of times."

This all went on for more than an hour as the boats crossed Molokai channel and approached Coco head when the wind started to lighten up and Hana Ho pulled away with their larger spinnaker. Hano Ho crossed the finish line 1 minute and 35 seconds before Shandu crossed the line. Shandu won on corrected time by more than an hour but as you can guess, they wanted to be that first Santa Cruz 50 to finish.

The two boats had matched-raced some 1,217 miles over the four plus days. What a race.

Let's hope we have wind this year.

....

I have always wanted to put this story together and like the end of a movie I would like to tell some of the outtakes of the interview I did.

Marshall “Duffy” Duffield: “ The food Bob Burns prepared was extreme high end craziness, awesome beyond approach. Abalone lunches, large shrimp prawns for an appetizer before dinner, huge perfect steaks. The food was so good it was like being in front of the plane, you never wanted to go back of the plane again.”

“Hewlett Packard had provided the boat with its first GPS system and for the first time we received two fixes a day. The lights would start blinking on the machine and we could look up and see the satellites. Today we have all this on our watch.” he said with a deep laugh. “ Before we could step off the boats the guys with their white lab coats came down and took the machines off the boat and back to the lab.”

“Being on edge in the dark, Gordo and I were on the same watch and he would stand behind me and update me on the apparent wind angle. This was the only way we could keep from crashing on the nights of terror”

“I am glad I got the opportunity to be apart of this crew”

Morrie Kirk was able to sail the race with his 21 year old son Kevin Kirk and had that type of finish.  “I will remember that race and it was a lot of fun”

Dennis Durgan: “These boats were like riding in the car wash with all the water going over the boats.”  “It was pretty scary with the guy up on top of the rig at 3 in the morning.”

“Talking to the other boat on the VHF if their dinner compared to our Bob Burns special.”, “ The top of the mast was torn off.” 

Peter Isler: “This was my first Trans Pac, the first one is always the best one.”

“ We had the Allman Brothers Mountain Jam blazing on the cockpit speakers as we crossed the 

Molokai Channel.”, “ The third night out we had ice cream.”

Dave Ullman: “ At the Kalaupapa light house it was flat out, spectacular race, we spent lots and lots of time talking on the VHF.”, “ With this type of match racing we had lots of fun by far my favorite memories of Trans Pac racing.”

Dennis Riehl: “ We ate well, I can’t even explain how fortunate I was to be selected to go with this group.” 

Gordo Johnson: “Those Bob Burns sleeper steaks were killer, all those flavors and all that food would just make me want to sleep.” 

Lets hope we have wind this year.

Sea ya

There is a new Anchorage in Town!

 In my July 2nd column I will be interviewing City Harbor Master Paul Blank, while talking to Blank for over an hour today he did bring up that the temporary anchorage in the West Turning Basin is now open and will be marked by boundary buoys by this weekend. Because of the different government agencies’ approval, this was not an easy task to complete. You can contact the city harbor department at dockmaster@newportbeachca.gov with your questions.

On the Harbor: Fishing with Decker

By LEN BOSE

While watching a video the other day posted on the Balboa Angling Club’s Facebook page reviewing the Lilly Call Tournament, I noticed the speaker was Jimmy Decker. I had grown up with the Decker family all through school in Huntington Beach and thought it would make for a good interview.

Decker was the oldest of three sons all born a year apart from each other. His grandfather owned a summer home on “The Silver Coast” now referred to as the Rhine Channel.

“As soon as I was out of diapers and able to walk, my grandfather would take me out fishing and give my parents a break…he was always on the water. Back by the Cannery when the Cannery was active, I would fish off the dock. We went out with his buddies and I was the 5-year-old deckhand. I fished with my grandfather up until my earlier 20s,” said Decker.

It just so happened that Decker and I were both born in Arcadia, Calif. and our parents moved to Huntington Beach in the early 1960s.

Decker’s mentors growing up in Newport Harbor were, of course, his grandfather and Mike Gardner. “Mike Gardner was the first inshore saltwater bass guy; he was the one that started two guys on a small boat fishing in the shallows for spotted bass. I fished a lot with him, he passed away three years ago. Mike was ‘the guy’ when it came to fishing spotted bay bass in Newport Harbor,” Decker recalled. I then asked about the kids coming into the sport. “There are a lot of kids fishing, fishing is a cool thing now. There are a lot of kids 8-15 years old on their bikes, with fishing rods and backpacks. Nothing can be better,” Decker said.

“I really got into light tackle fishing about 20 years ago and became a member of the Balboa Angling Club. I’ve been a past president and on the board of directors a couple of times. I enjoy the camaraderie of the club and find being a member is one of the best values on our harbor,” Decker said.

Decker has his 100-ton captain’s license and worked Davy’s Locker boats for eight years. Today he has his own 243 Everglade Center Console boat and will provide fishing guide half-day runs for two people inshore, or full-day Catalina and San Clemente Island runs when the weather is permitting. He does offshore tuna and marlin runs later in the fall.

Decker is on the water more than anyone else I know and I wanted to get his observations, as he is one of our harbor’s best fishermen. When asked how our harbor reacted to the last dredging of the lower bay, he said: “The first dredging they dug out the shallows and it really silted out the eelgrass, you remember the harbor was brown for months. I target the spotted bay bass. If they don’t have conditions that they like, they will migrate north to the other harbors until they find more suitable living conditions. It was just getting back to be reasonably good,” he said.

Then I asked if the harbor got cleaned out from the last dredging. “The water quality has greatly improved, over the last couple of years, dude. On a clear day with a little bit of sun you can see the bottom, 17 feet down. When that happens, you know you are not going to catch anything, it is just too clear. When it’s really clear like that you know it’s going to be a tough fishing day. You can tell the water quality has really improved as all that eelgrass in the BYC moorings is really good there all the way to the back near the Coast Guard station,” Decker said.

When discussing this summer’s dredging project Decker said, “We are going to run into the same problem with silting up as last time. In five years, it will be nice because we will have a much larger flush of clean water, as we are going to have more cubic feet of water on every tide. It’s going to take a long time for the silt to get flushed out. It will make the harbor better, in the long run, more water movement gets more fish activated. Once everything gets cleaned up and settled down it will improve the fishing. We might get more species as sand bass like deeper water so we might get more sand bass in the bay from the Pavilion outwards. I am sure things will improve for the better, it’s just going to take a while.”

I asked Decker if the harbor needed another boat launch ramp. “There really is no place to put one unfortunately. The Dunes launch ramp is phenomenal, it’s a great facility with wash downs, five lanes with long docks that makes launching easy for one person. There is not a better launch ramp facility than Newport Beach,” Decker said.

I assume fishermen and sailors all have their superstitions, so when I asked Decker of his, he said, “I don’t know if they are superstitions, but I try not to fish bass in the morning after a full moon. I don’t like to fish if the wind is blowing out of the southeast when we are marlin fishing. I have the same three shirts that I wear in order, same gloves, lucky crimping tools.”

I found our interview very interesting for so many reasons. Decker and I came to the beach from the foothills, and our passion for the harbor is strong with both of us wanting the best for the harbor with access for the next generations to have the same life we have been so fortunate to have on our harbor. If you are bringing in that old school buddy of yours and you want to show them the best fishing our harbor and coast have to offer, contact fishingwithdecker@yahoo.com, as he is “The Guy!”   Hiring Fishing Guys

Sea ya. 

~~~~~~~~

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

On the Harbor: Things are heating up, from bay dredging and races to yacht club openings.

 

By LEN BOSE

We are coming into summer with some heat…I’m referring to the activity around the harbor. These last couple of weeks, we have completed the Ensenada Race, Yacht Clubs’ opening days, a new Harbormaster, the starting of dredging the Lower Bay, Balboa Angling Club’s Lily Call Tournament, summer sailing and people placing strange objects in strange places.

The Ensenada Race started on April 23 with a heavy marine layer and around 10 knots of breeze out of the southwest that picked up to 15 knots out of the west by the time we reached North Coronado island. I was aboard Carbon Footprint owned by Jim Devling out of the Balboa Yacht Club. As we approached the island, I noticed Steve Sellinger’s Santa Cruz 52 Triumph only a mile behind us and sailing close to the same speed. After the island, Sellinger’s team sailed exceptionally well and wound up taking home all the pickle dishes including 1st overall in PHRF. Team IT’s OK sailed very well, finishing 1st in its class followed closely by Team Bolt, 30 seconds behind on corrected time for 2nd in class. That close a race still has to burn a little. Overall, there was a consistent breeze down the course with a few of us unlucky ones running into the light breeze, in the bay, just before the finish line. That’s the Ensenada race – “What are ya going to do?” Post-race activities, as expected, were light in attendance. Word around the docks afterward was the organizing authority was trying really hard to bring things back to normal. I for one am already looking forward to next year’s race and staying for the party.

This weekend is the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club’s and Balboa Yacht Club’s opening days. Last weekend was Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s opening day race on Saturday followed by Sunday’s opening day ceremonies. Looking at everyone’s photos and talking to a few friends, the ceremonies started to feel more like years gone by, and I am looking forward to BCYC’s opening day this Saturday. For those of you who are interested in Yachtsman Flag etiquette for dressing your vessel for the special event, go to my website at www.lenboseyachts.blogspot.com. The American Legion Yacht Club has already started their Monday night sundowners, NHYC is sailing twilights on Thursdays, and BCYC’s famous “Taco Tuesdays” start this Tuesday night.

Josh Cast 26.89 Halibut

On April 24 and 25, the Balboa Angling Club held its 58th Annual Lily Call Harbor Fishing Tournament. This year’s winners were: Fish type - Croaker: Josh East, 1.07 lbs. in 1st place; Fish type - Bass: 1st place was Kenny Knight at 2.44 lbs., 2nd place was Colin Sarfeh at 2.41 lbs.; and 3rd place was Ryan Later at 2.37 lbs. Kenny Knight also did well fishing for Corbina taking 1st place at 3.71 lbs.; in 2nd was Trenton Humphries at 2.91 lbs. and Tommy Tuman took 3rd at 2.89 lbs. Fish type - Halibut: Josh Kast crushed it at 26.89 lbs. taking 1st place; 2nd went to Colin Sarfeh at 11.8 lbs.; and Aaron Sariano took 3rd place with 5.48 lbs. I say this every year – Balboa Angling Club is the best value in town, so contact them about their Junior summer program.

I received word a couple of weeks ago that Paul Blank will be taking the helm as the city’s harbormaster. I’ve interviewed Blank many times over the years, and I can’t think of a better person for the job. Hit the link above to my website for an interview I did with him back in 2014. Very few people hold the same amount of passion and well-being for our harbor as Blank, who stays on task, is very easy to approach and quite frankly he “gets it.” This is a huge win for our harbor, and Blank has promised me an interview this month to get the full scoop from the bottom of the harbor.

Talking about scoops from the bottom of the harbor, the Army Corps of Engineers has contracted with Pacific Dredge and Construction to complete dredging of the main channel entrance and just around the corner up to the car ferry crossing. If I am not mistaken, the city will then contract with them to dredge the remainder of the Lower Bay. I’ve written about this before, and I hope that everyone understands that this a fantastic thing for our harbor.

People are placing strange things in strange places, and I thought I had seen it all. At the end of Lido Isle, a resident has opted to place a floating boat lift to support a vessel that appears to be over 30 feet tall and 70 feet in length. If I was to guess the boat’s name it would be called Eclipse, because that is what it’s going to do to the neighbor’s view of the harbor. The boat is kind of cool looking, but lifted out of the water by a floating dock lift is disgusting and just wrong. On another tack regarding placing strange things in strange places, I would like to know who ordered the piece of algae known as Caulerpa prolifera native to Florida and planted it in the main channel to slow down the dredging project? This comment has no facts backing it up, as it is a conspiracy theory that I truly hope doesn’t hold water. But, you tell me how does a piece of algae that would blow up our entire harbor’s ecosystem suddenly show up just days before dredging starts with a diver that knows what Caulerpa prolifera is, where it was located and who knew exactly who to report the findings to in order to stop the dredging? I am sure I’m wrong about this one, yet “the things that make you go hmmmm.”

Sea ya.

~~~~~~~~

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

BCYC attends NHYC Westside Team Racing Regatta

 

Larry Parker Photos

I’m in the grocery store looking for the best value wine, you know the one with the biggest discount. The phone rings and it is Jack Thompson asking if I would like to join the BCYC team for a team racing event in Harbor 20s organized by the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. My first thought was one of those old TV commercials of the crash test dummies, I do not know how to team race and the kids at the NHYC are some of the world’s best. Jack went on to explain that he and Christophe Killian are forming a team and they would like me to join them. I replied that I was happy to practice with them but there are many more experienced team racing sailors at BCYC they should call. 

Thompson sets up a zoom meeting a couple of days later with David Levy, Christophe Killian, and Aubrey Mayer in attendance, about an hour into the meeting I finally “get it” the notice of race indicates that one of the skippers must be over the age of sixty. “Ohhhh I understand now, you need an old guy?” I said.  This makes me a little more interested yet I still am seeing those crash test dummies.

Thompson organizes a couple of practices when I start feeling that maybe I can at least stay out of harm’s way. The kids keep telling me to sail fast, get in the lead, and don’t look back. As the event approaches, I made the mistake of looking at the other team’s rosters. Each team of three boats has at least two college sailing All-Americans some teams even the “Old guy” was an All-American skipper.

Race day arrives and the competitors gather for the skipper’s meeting, while glancing around the room I am taken back with the skill level of everyone attending. There is an old rule in sailing, make sure you know who is better than you on the racecourse. Well, I just happen to know everyone in the room, and if I did not know the person I recognized them from the different sailing magazines.

Our team name was the Corinthian Cruisers our goal was to keep our noses clean and not end up like a puppy being potty trained. Our team consisted of boat # 1 Jack Thompson & David Levy, Boat #2 Christophe Killian & Aubrey Mayer, # 3 me and Patrick Kincaid. The kids kept telling me to “Have fun and sail fast” in fact they reminded me of this so often I thought I had must have had a little accident in the corner already. We finish the first day going 2-2 and no one is saying a thing. In fact, we beat the team that won the whole thing that day, I had my first memorable moment when I finished the race and Killian looked at me and said: “ Now that’s team racing!” With a thumbs-up, and a huge smile.

Day two started at 10:00 and finished at 18:00 with ten races that day with long waits between races under the hot sun. The highlight of the day was finishing in sixth place out of twelve boats and qualifying in the gold round. Again, we all stayed rather quiet and said nothing about the BYC team, other than a large smirk on our face, not qualifying in the gold round. The day before BYC crushed us, to quote one of their teammates “That was not much of a race”. After a late afternoon break, we headed back out on the harbor for two races in the gold round. By this time I am fried, done, roasted, if my belly button was a meter it would have pooped out. At the age of 60 nothing pops any longer. We faced two of the best teams and I just got my nose rubbed in it and went back to the dock telling myself how I never want to do this “Team Racing” stuff again wondering how much could I sell my boat for?

The last day started at 10:00 on Sunday with a postponement until the Santa Ana winds calmed down at about noon. We had three races to go and although I was sailing well we lost the first two races. We still had a chance to make the knock-out round of the top six boats. At the end of the third race, going to the finish line, we pulled ahead and when I crossed the finish line I had another memorable moment with Aubrey Mayer, who had already finished, jumping up and down with a huge smile on his face. We had beat the only team with one win in the gold round and won on the tie-breaker too advanced to the knock-out round. Going into the next round we faced the team that finished in second for the event and they throttled us rather hard, winning the first two races out of three. Coming into the dock you would have thought we won the event finishing fifth out of twelve boats. Kudos with well done’s were received from all the competitors. Finishing in the top half of this event was extraordinarily gratifying with hopes of starting interest from within BCYC.

As President Biden would say “Now here is the deal” BCYC has planted the seed and has the top junior program in our harbor. You have built it and they have come, now we have to keep them. An active “team racing & match racing” program will keep the kid’s attention. If we provide the comparable tools as NHYC has we will grow because NHYC team is so deep that most of their team does not get any playing time. We have to WANT it, and the opportunity is now! Let’s take that next step up the ladder we already have most of the tools needed? Keeping young adults active and staying at the club has always been a challenge, this is one way to achieve that goal of keeping long family legacies for our history books. Huge shout out to Commodore Bacon for coming out on the water and cheering us on Saturday.

Sea ya!

Len Bose

On the Harbor: Remembering Gordon “Gordo” Johnson

                                                                        By LEN BOSE

In the early 1960s, there was a group of kids that grew up in the Bayshores community who became some of our harbor’s most knowledgeable and skilled yachtsmen. We had the Hills, Durgan, Duffield and Johnson families. Coop and Liz Johnson had three sons – Gordon, Dougal and David. All four families are extraordinarily close even after 60 years, spending time on our harbor and around the world together.

At the start of April of this year, Gordon “Gordo” Johnson passed away after a six-month battle with Leukemia. I was taken aback on hearing the news, and like so many other people from around the harbor, felt the pain of losing a close friend even if I had barely known the man. One of his biggest traits was making you feel that you are a friend.

At the age of 10, Gordo started sailing sabots, sail number 4355, at the crew base. Next at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, where he joined Dennis Durgan and Marshall Duffield all sailing sabots together on our harbor. The routine was simple then during the warm summer days: rig your sabot’s sail in the morning, head to Shark Island (now Linda Isle) and walk over the PCH bridge to Will Wrights for ice cream. Finish the day by participating in the summer’s evening racing.

Durgan and Gordo then went on to Orange Coast College, where they competed on the sailing team together. Winning the Douglas Cup and participating against other four-year schools, soundly beating them to the point where the sailing coach from the University of Hawaii asked if they would like a scholarship to his school and sail on the team. Both he and Durgan lived on Oahu in Kailua for a year and a half in a Quonset hut on the beach. When Gordo returned to the mainland, he enrolled at USC and became an All-American by winning the sloop and match racing championships. Somewhere during this time, he also crewed for Andy Rose and won two Governor’s Cups. Then he stayed on as the sailing coach at USC for the next couple of years.

By then, Gordo was the hot commodity as a bowman for all the Grand Prix racing boats from around the world. “When we lived on the Peninsula together, I recall someone calling on behalf of the King of Spain, explaining that there was an airline ticket waiting for him at LAX to come sail with the king, and this type of thing happened all the time,” said Gary Hill.

I asked the above group what was one of their favorite sea stories. The same story kept coming up. The year was 1975. Charles Jordon, the owner of the 37’ Paragon, called Durgan and asked if he would put a group together for the upcoming Transpac. Of course, Durgan turned to the Bayshores boys and invited Gordo and Duffield to join the team. On the fourth night of the race, which was the 4th of July, the crew had set the brand new spinnaker up. Gordo, as always, attached his mascot, “Bud-Man,” to the stern pulpit of the boat. It’s unclear whose skyrocket it was, but Duffy and Gordo thought it would be a good idea to light it on that night. The story goes that the rocket took off straight up then went straight into the spinnaker, then blew a hole in the head of it. Before the off watch came back on deck, they had taken the chute down, repaired it, then reset it. When the sun came up the next morning, there was more than one discussion on what had happened to the new sail. The team sailed to a 2nd in class and 8th overall that year.

Another great story was when Durgan and Johnson were in Hawaii and borrowed a Ranger 33 and Islander 36 and cruised the boats to Maui. On their way back to Oahu, “Gordo wanted to check out the leper colony on Molokai. I did not care for the idea that much, so we stayed aboard while Johnson went exploring,” said Durgan. “Next thing you know, Johnson was ‘streaking,’ yes he was butt naked. We just pulled out of the anchorage before the authorities arrived. He had his antics about him.”

Gordo sailed on two Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) overall winning boats. He was aboard two Congressional Cups, a Lipton Cup and two Transpac overall winning boats. The list goes on and on. “He was a great shipmate on board, first to pitch in, great sail trimmer and driver. I am going to miss him. He was such a great storyteller,” shared Durgan. “My wife thought he was going with us on our honeymoon, he came over every Christmas Eve and helped me to assemble the kids’ toys, which leads to many other stories. He was always the first one to volunteer for the work parties at Moonstone. I love the guy as a brother,” said Hill.

A couple of years ago, most of the Bayshores boys gathered for lunch when Gordo pointed out that one of them was mayor of the city while the other was the commodore of the yacht club. Knowing what they all knew about the other brought out a rather deep round of laughter around the table.

While talking to Gordo’s brothers Dougal and Dave, they brought up how much he enjoyed fine wine, gardening and fashion along with a good story.

There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. To recall our life, the ups and downs, the times we pulled ourselves up from the dirt, the times we are recognized for our achievements, the remembrance of a brother, the keeper of all our stories and a good friend. We are all going to miss Gordo the storyteller!

Sea ya.

On the Harbor: The epic Newport to Cabo race

By LEN BOSE

The warmth I felt on my bald head indicates that spring has arrived along with the swarming beehive under my neighbor’s eve, which reminds me of the activity on the harbor when it appears things are returning back to normal.

The word “epic” best describes this year’s Newport to Cabo San Lucas hosted by the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, which took place March 19-25. The race started in 1971 and ran through 1991; there was a 10-year break and it restarted in 2001. Two things have always attracted me to this race. First, you are sailing downwind within the first six hours of the race and two, and the odds are more than 60 percent that the month of March will provide a windy race. This year, we had a windy race that propelled Horizon to the finish line in three days and three hours, which placed us 2nd in class and 4th overall, sailing under the Balboa Yacht Club burgee. Dave Clark aboard his Santa Cruz 70 Grand Illusion, Newport Harbor Yacht Club, won his class and took 2nd overall. Craig Reynolds, Balboa Yacht Club, sailing on Bolt a Nelson Marek 68, finished 2nd in his class and 8th overall. Compadres an Andrews 77 from the Balboa Yacht Club sailed to a 3rd in class.

This had to have been the most consistent breeze I’ve seen in this race which leads to a new course record of 1 day and 22 hours set by Roy Disney aboard his new Volvo 70 Pyewacket 70. That’s an average of more than 20 knots over an 800-mile course – that’s pretty fast for seven dwarfs. Just kidding, the crew consisted of 13 sailing giants with one of the crew Ken Read, who had just flown in from New Zealand after commentating the America’s Cup over the last four months on NBC. I wish I would have seen Read on the docks for his comments.

For us aboard Horizon, the race had moments when our skills were tested on late mornings, when the moon had set, we were still two hours before sunrise when it’s pitch black and you just came on watch. Your eyes are watering up from the breeze across the deck and you are trying to figure out what’s going on all around you. How windy is it, and how high are the wind gusts? Which sail do we have up and are all the lines clear that control the sails? A quick review with the off-going watch captain on the instructions from the navigator and are there any other boats around us? Then BAM, you’re in the game. One morning I went through the above procedure and took the spinnaker sheet then clipped into the jack lines (we wear a life jacket/harness that has a tether that attaches to a safety strap that runs down both sides of the boat that’s called a jack line). So, there I am trying to clear my tearing eyes and adjust them to the pitch-black surroundings, while looking at the sailing instruments gathering information on the wind and the course that we should be driving to keep the boat from crashing. It’s always intimidating at these moments when the wind is blowing over 25 knots with the thought crossing my mind if I can handle my turn at the helm.

Aboard Amante in 1987 Cabo Race

Just then, on this dark morning, I couldn’t see past the bow of the boat when a huge wave pounds into the side that drops at least 20 gallons of water over my head. No one else on watch gets wet, but I am spitting saltwater up as if I had just been dropped into a dunk tank. Okay, okay…game on, and I bitched and moaned for a good 10 minutes, as I felt the water start to work through my gear, and felt the squish of water in my wool socks. We enter another wave, and I get thrown into the cockpit landing on my knees still trying to trim the spinnaker hoping we were not going to crash. Just then the helmsman asked if I am ready to drive. I stand back up, untangle my tether, and move as fast as a 60-year-old can behind the wheel. Now I can’t move as fast as I once did in 1983 aboard Amante, the first time I sailed in a Cabo race, but after the first wave and cutting back to balance the boat out, I uttered a big sigh, then felt like I owned this. I am the king! I never had that confidence in 1983 with my skill level at the helm. To tell you the truth, that’s what keeps me coming back for more – the personal challenge one has with the sea with the understanding that one can be drenched and knocked down to their knees at one moment then feel at the top of their game the next.

Most every boat had their moments to challenge their skills with two boats receiving challenges from below the water. Doug Baker’s Kernan 75 Peligroso hit a whale at more than 20 knots and took all the fairing off the keel. The team had to drop out of the race and haul the boat to Ensenada in order to inspect the damages. Manouch Moshayedi aboard Rio 100 had a similar problem. If I heard the story right, they lost one of their two rudders when they ran into a shark, then had to drop out of the race.

I have to give a huge shout out to the principal race officer Dwight Belden and Race Chairman John Curci for again putting on an epic race in very difficult times. The awards presentation was fun again – when is free food and an open bar not fun? A WELL DONE must be given to the NHYC team!

Sea ya.

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

On the Harbor: Looking for some calm like our harbor waters

                                                                                      By LEN BOSE

Nine days before the start of this year’s Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s Cabo San Lucas Race…and my phone is blowing up. Of course, I just went into contract on my premier listing which is how it always works out when one has scheduled an offshore race.

My skipper on the Santa Cruz 50 Horizon has severe ADD and he is best known for winning most, if not all, of the Mexico races for the last 30 years. By 7 a.m., all the boat’s electronics had crashed, the running lights needed replacing and he was looking for a person with a hookah that could replace our zincs and wet sand our new bottom paint. At 7:30 a.m., we had to have all the sails off the boat and have them inspected and he was asking if he should take the online safety at sea course. At 7:45 a.m., I received a text with a recommendation to use Voltaren for my arthritis in my back. At 8 a.m., I was informed we needed to purchase a PPL test to look at the salinity of the water from our water maker, otherwise I could be slowly killing everyone. At 8:07 a.m., our emergency Man Overboard Module needs to be serviced; my skipper picked it up for me from service six weeks ago. At 8:10 a.m., I blocked his incoming messages and calls.

It’s 8:15 a.m. and the buyer of the big boat wants to move as quickly as possible and would like to close the deal before the end of next week. This is a good problem. I immediately contacted Reliable Documentation, and ordered the abstract of title, and arranged the trial run with the buyer and seller. Both agree that this Saturday works. At 8:30 a.m., the seller calls back and was reminded of a prior commitment and can we change the trial run to Sunday. All good, so I placed this on my desk until Sunday

By 8:45 a.m., I have a deal closing and I am trying to arrange a meeting time with the seller’s brother, as the seller is skiing in Tahoe. Now I am waiting for a time to exchange proceeds for the title. My 21-year-old son calls who lent his friend his car and now it has been towed. He wants to sell the car to his friend and needs the pink slip. Do I know where the pink slip is? He will be over within the hour. My wife was leaving to start her workday and asked what I needed from my car because she needs the truck today. Also, is there anything I needed from the grocery store and what sounded good for dinner tonight? My response was two bourbon snow cones and watching the America’s Cup, which was not the answer she was looking for. Not sure what she was mumbling when she walked out the door.

It’s 9 a.m. and I am still trying to put a story together for my Stu News column and just received my second friendly reminder that my column is due. Deep breath and I ask myself: What’s new around the harbor? There is the Cabo race, but I have already written about that. Last night’s Harbor Commission meeting was uneventful, yet I assume you all picked up that our Harbormaster Kurt Borsting has decided to retire after three years and the city is looking for a replacement. Towards the end of the meeting, after the Harbormaster’s report, I raised my hand at the Zoom meeting and was quickly recognized. My observation was about the amount of discarded fishing line that was showing up wrapped around props of all the boats I have been hauling out for inspection. For some reason, this has grabbed my attention and there is much more than usual in the harbor. If you think about it, fishing is an activity you can do by yourself during these COVID times. The state of California does have a recycling program and there are a couple of stations around the harbor. Most are on the Balboa Pier that probably does not help the problem with our harbor water. I have given myself the task to hunt out these recycling stations and report back to you. I did go to the state website and noticed that the fishing lines recycling stations only number three within our harbor. One is at the Balboa Bay Club docks and the other at Bayshores Marina. My gut would tell me that these are not the fishermen we should target.

During the Harbor Commission meeting, the question was brought up on the progress of our harbor having its own Marine Recycling Center. A Marine Recycling Center is for items that are difficult to dispose of such as expired marine flares, spilled transmission fluid, engine coolant, engine oil and old batteries. These items typically end up in the blue dumpster because you have to drive to your nearest dump and pay to dispose of them. It appears this task has been tabled again and our harbor continues not to have a Marine Recycling Center. 

My kid just broke down the front door and needs his pink slip now. It’s interesting how I am much more tolerant with him now that he has moved from the house and I feel lucky to see him.

Please wish me luck on my boat deal and the Cabo race. Just unblocked my skipper: My phone tells me he is stuck at the top of the mast.

Sea ya.

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