Boat Parade Opens County’s Centennial

More than 40 sailboats and powerboats paraded through Dana Point Harbor on Saturday, staging the first event of a yearlong celebration of Orange County’s 100th birthday.

The procession, officially named Dana Point’s Historic Boat Parade, lasted for nearly two hours and signaled the opening day of the boating season for the Capistrano Bay and Dana West yacht clubs.

Officers of the yacht clubs wore traditional blue blazers as they steered their boats around the harbor. A small cannon aboard the Pilgrim--a full-sized replica of the square-rigged vessel on which Richard Henry Dana sailed into the cove for the first time in 1835--fired blank rounds as the boats sailed by. The Pilgrim sits in the west end of the harbor near the Orange County Marine Institute.

One boat was appropriately decorated with oranges and orange trees and another carried a banner declaring: “Happy 100th Orange County.”

This was the first official event of many that will mark the county’s 1989 centennial.

A lively mariachi band played from the small deck of one sailboat. Other boats in the parade represented the Centennial Tall Ship Festival, San Juan Capistrano Historical Society, The Ocean Festival and the San Clemente Summer Fiesta.

The string of boats cruised through the east basin of the harbor, down the main channel and into the west basin. The parade traveled the route several times. Spectators lined the bridges and the slips. Others sat on their boats sipping champagne and calling out to friends riding in the parade.

“You can never tell exactly how many boats you have in a parade,” said Ken Mangum, an officer of the Dana West Yacht Club and the owner of one of the 16 official boats. “I think we have between 40 and 50 boats today.”

Mangum and his wife, Jane, owner of the 35-foot Lady Jane Too, served champagne, white wine, fruit, nuts and sweet rolls aboard their powerboat. The sun was warm as the clouds and the haze burned off.

“What a nice day,” Jane Mangum said. “You can all come back in two weeks. My son is going to be married on this boat.”