Larry Fortmuller finally found an excuse to invest in a pair of white buckskin shoes.
“When do you get a chance to do that?” he asked, showing them off along with his navy blue blazer and crisp white pants. “Now that I’m older, I get to do this stuff.”
Fortmuller, a member of Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for four years, had a good excuse to dress up in his sailor garb – it was opening day for the boating season on Saturday, and he was ready to party. 
The club closed its doors Friday night, and then opened them back up on Saturday as a symbolic gesture to kick off the boating season. Most yacht clubs around the world have opening day parties, but the celebrations are a bigger deal in cold-weather marinas where boating shuts down during winter.
“California has no real opening day. It’s open everyday, because of the climate,” said Gary Jackson, a party crasher from the American Legion club.
The day started off with the Coast Guard Auxiliary inspecting the boats to make sure they are seaworthy.
Flags were strung up to the boats, and bottles of champagne sat in the water. Boaters once did this when they came into port to keep the alcohol cold to celebrate their homecoming.
The opening day party was also used to kick off the yacht club’s 50th anniversary, with more shindigs planned for the rest of the year.
Jim Emmi, 92, has been a member of the club for more than 40 years, and remembers when the club was much different than it is today.
“It’s gotten bigger, and friendlier,” he said.
Bahia Corinthian, one of the bigger yacht clubs in the harbor, started out with financial troubles in the ’70s. (more…)

Mike Juneau looked out at his stuck boat on the sand in Corona del Mar, watching as water flowed under it.
“Oh, it’s rocking!” he said, every time the 27-foot boat Salubrious made a slight move.
Juneau learned his boat had washed ashore Wednesday morning after his neighbor – a pastor who lives in a nearby boat moored off Big Corona – called him with the news.
“I said ‘funny.’ I came out here, and there it sits,” he said. “That’s my house right there.”
Juneau had to wait for the tides to come up at about 6 p.m. before the boat could be pulled back to sea. Newport Beach lifeguards set up a bridle, and the Harbor Patrol slowly pulled it out with their boat.
“We were very glad to help the guy out,” said Newport Beach lifeguard Cpt. Josh van Egmond. “It was his house, and I think that’s why we went the extra mile to help him out. He had nothing else but that boat.”
When the boat was pulled off the sand, Juneau dropped to one knee and said a prayer. Then he ran up to van Egmond to give him a bear hug.

Juneau – known as “peg leg” around town because he lost a leg 28 years ago – bought the boat for $100 during a Harbor Department boat action held about a year ago. The former pedicab driver lives among nine other boats sitting off shore south of the harbor entrance.

“It’s peaceful, it’s relaxing. No neighbors. And you can come and go as you please,” he said. (more…)

The folks that run the Newport-to-Ensenada race sent over a warning recently for those headed down to Mexico for next week’s race.
There has been an influx of violence in the past six months against surfers and sailors – check out this article for a full report about the attacks written by our Travel writer Gary Warner.

The race kicks off next Friday, with a few hundred boats leaving from the Newport Harbor. I’ll be posting blogs here through the week for updates about the race.

NOSA Commodore Gator Cook said they’ve gone down to Tijuana and Rosarito several times, with no problemo. But they offered these tips if you’re headed down:

1. Fill your gas tank before you leave the USA and cross the border; fill up your tank again in Ensenada before you return home.

(more…)

Community blogger Len Bose gives us a look at the big Newport Boat Show through the eyes of a broker:

Yep, it’s the BIG YACHT SHOW and I am sure you have read about the debut of some of the world’s newest, largest, sportiest and luxurious yachts.
They are all here and I have spent the last two days walking around and getting ready for the show. Most of you know I try to write from a route not taken before - and after twenty years of doing these shows, let me try to describe some of the lessons learned.
 These lessons are from where to park, how to search, how to view, who to bring with you and what shoes to wear.

Parking is like buying wine at a restaurant and if you’re like me, I would rather pay the corkage fee rather than pay four times the retail value. If you come to the show during the week, park across the street off of Short Street, located to the west of Via Lido. Parking is easy most days if you arrive after 12:30 p.m. because of street sweeping on Friday. If you are coming to the show on the weekend, the Newport City

(more…)

Oh, only $7 million? Let me write you a check.
“That will be the one you’ll be taking home,” quipped Don Franken, spokesman for the Newport Boat Show.
About 330 luxury vessels are being shined up today for the kick off for the 35th annual Newport Boat Show, the largest boat show in the water on the West Coast.

Early potential buyers have already been checking out the goods, even though the show doesn’t officially start until noon on Wednesday.

Sixty percent of the boats are new this year.
(more…)

Mike Martin was driving down Pacific Coast Highway when he heard a pop-pop-pop noise under his car.
When the Huntington Beach resident saw what made the racket, there was orange paint under his wheel well, tires and bumper.

“The street was covered in them, you couldn’t dodge them,” he said. “They were still cracking and popping and squirting all over.”

CLICK HERE or on the photo to the right to check out a video from the event.

Crews have been working around the clock to clean up the paint left over from last week’s Super 7 World Series of Paintball, which drew about 70,000 spectators to see more than 1,500 competitors battle it out in Huntington Beach.

Dante Giuliano, operations manager for event, said a crew of about 75 people has been picking up paintballs from 6 a.m. to midnight to clean up the aftermath. They’ve been literally on their hands and knees plucking balls from the sand, and scooping them up with a shovel with holes that allows the sand to sift through. 

The mess on Martin’s car occurred after balls accidently came out of a dumpster and landed at the intersection of Beach St. Wednesday morning. Giuliano said he and four other workers had it cleaned up within a few hours.
Giuliano said the paintballs are 100 percent biodegradable. 

 “It comes off very quickly with water alone,” Giuliano said. 
City spokeswoman Laurie Payne said the city gets complaints every year about the event, but clean up crews are allowed a week to get the beach back to normal.

The event brings about $480,000 in revenue to the city, and the event organizer pays for the clean up. And the paint isn’t actually paint, it’s a water-soluble substance, she said.

Giuliano said part of the consequence of a fun event is the clean up afterward.

“Afterward, we hit it like gangbusters to make it clean,” he said. “I personally can’t leave the beach with a clear conscious if it’s not.” 

Environmental crews are on hand to monitor the effort, he said.  They will be out there until Friday.
“A large portion of the crew is Huntington Beach residents, we take pride in the places we live,” said Giuliano, who helps put up the infrastructure for the U.S. Open of Surfing and Boardfest, an all-girls event held in fall.  “This is the beach I come to, this is the beach I bring my kids to, Giuliano said.

Martin still wonders why the city would allow paintballs at the beach.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said.  “I’m glad they have someone cleaning it up.”

The first of the boats competing in the 800-mile Corona del Mar to Cabo San Lucas race have made it to dry land.The 41-foot vessel Reinrag2 out of Portland led the fleet when it made it to shore at 9:13 p.m. Monday night, with other boats following through the night.

“It was a perfect year, it couldn’t be better,” said crewmember Darren Garnier. About 38 boats departed from the Balboa Pier last weekend – the smaller ones on Friday and bigger boats on Saturday.

Garnier said the winds stayed consistently strong – at about 20 knots - through the race.

“We just kept going and going,” he said. “The boat was completely drenched in water the whole time. It was fabulous.”They ran into a bit of trouble when their steering cable broke about an hour from the finish.
“We all jumped into action,” he said.
Darren’s mom, JoLinda Garnier, has been checking iBoat every two hours – even through the night - which lets spectators see the boats’ positions.  Her husband is also racing on the boat Fortaleza.

“It’s like a little surfboard, it’s just a fast boat and very challenging to sail,” she said of Reinrag2.
Stealth Chicken came in about an hour after Reinrag2, and record holder Magnitude 80 finished at about 10 p.m.

The first of the boats were expected at around 7 p.m. last night, but the wind suddenly died and it took longer for them to reach the finish line.
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“That’s sailing for you,” said spokesman Rich Roberts.
Despite the slowdown near the finish, Garnier said it was a perfect race. 

“It was just great weather,” he said. “It was a perfect year, it couldn’t be better.”

Click here to read a previous article about the race.

Click here to see a video of the racers before they left.  

Craig Reynolds stood at the end of the Balboa Pier, pointing out to the boat Tango.

“That’s my boy,” said Reynolds, Jr. Staff Commodore for the Balboa Yacht Club, as his son’s boat joined about 30 others preparing to set sail on an 800-mile voyage. “I should be out there.”

Check out this video on the race, put together by our partners over at KDOC.  

Spectators lined the end of the wooden pier and the sand to watch today’s start of the Corona del Mar to Cabo san Lucas sailboat race. On Saturday, about a dozen of the bigger boats are going to start the race from the same location.

“Those are some of the fastest boats in the world,” said Reynolds of Saturday’s starters. “They are top-notch sailing yachts.”

Big names have signed on to join the race – hosted by the Balboa Yacht Club -  including Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80 and America’s Cup winner Dennis Conner.

Among today’s racers are the Nauti Chicas, an all-women’s team that is preparing for the 2009 Transpac.

The Nauti Chicas are in their element – they picked their names because of their love for Mexico races, and frequently compete in races to Puerto Villarta and mainland Mexico.

“We do have a good time, but we’re very serious too,” said coach Sue Senescu of Dana Point.

Vicki Sovereign, of Iowa, just happened to be checking out the beach and enjoying the nice weather when she stopped to watch the race.

“I’ve never seen one, so it’s pretty cool,” she said. “There was snow on ground when I left Iowa.”

Gary Olson and girlfriend Alixandra Kim came prepared with binoculars for the race.

Kim said she enjoys checking out the beauty of the boats, to see the various designs up close.

“We’re living vicariously through them,” she said, about half an hour before the race started.

“It’s not going to be fast,” Olson said. “It’s going to be a typical Southern California start.”

Sailboats maneuvered their spots before the horn sounded, trying to find wind and inch close to the start.  Most boats opted to take the offshore route, heading away from the coast rather than south. Winds were moderate, clocking about 8 knots.

“Go Tango!!!!” the crowd on the deck of Ruby’s Restaurant cheered as the boats slowly passed beginning their journey south.

The race is more challenging than the Newport to Ensenada race, so it brings out serious competitors. 

Balboa Yacht Club commodore Art Mitchell said two years ago only 24 boats entered.

“We really got some great boats, good crews,” he said. “It should be an outstanding race.”

To follow the boats using iboat during the race, click here.

A group of about 40 sailors will be setting off for a 800-mile voyage starting Friday from Newport to Cabo San Lucas for a competitive sailboat race.

The Balboa Yacht Club is hosting the biennial race. Newport Yacht Club has a similar race during alternate years.
 The smaller boats will be departing Friday at noon; the remaining larger ones leaving at noon on Saturday. The best place for the public to watch the start of the race is from the end of the Balboa Pier. (Click link for map).
Among the boaters on Saturday will be Dennis Conner, four-time winner of the America’s Cup, where he competed for decades.
“He could be the world’s best-known sailor,” said Rich Roberts, race spokesman. “It gives the race some identity and credibility.”

Also in the big boat race will be Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80, which owns the record at 61 hours, 26 minutes and 58 seconds from the 2005 race.

The race isn’t as much commitment as doing the Transpacific Yacht Race or a major ocean race, but it’s harder than the Newport-to-Ensenada race, which is coming up at the end of April.

(more…)

About 200 people showed up Wednesday night to hear an update on the Dana Point Harbor revitalization project, and to view various plans to upgrade the marina.
The meeting – put on by county staff – pulled together boaters and merchants, many who spoke about moving the project forward as quick as possible.
“We’re never going to make everyone happy,” said Jim Miller, a merchant who has been involved in the process for the past decade. “If they have to make major changes, it will have to go back to the beginning.”
The $140-million project has been in the works for about 10 years. The marina upgrades are part of a larger revitalization project that includes improvements to the commercial businesses surrounding the harbor.

(more…)