TERRANCE PHILLIPS -- The Harbor Column

In his literary work, “The Wind in the Willows,” author Kenneth

Grahame wrote, “There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much

worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” What better place to mess

about in boats than on our own beautiful Newport Harbor?

You can find everything from million-dollar mega yachts to

dinky-dollar dinghies on our local pond. Just to mess around in boats,

any kind of boat for that matter can be fun.

There are others that take boating a wee bit more seriously. Some take

sailing from the “messing” category to the “addiction” category. But

where does this addictive behavior begin? (By the way, it has been

concluded this behavior is very contagious and habit forming.) It’s hard

to believe there are addicts actually attending our local schools.

Newport Harbor High is guilty as charged, having recently sent the likes

of Tyler Haskell, Cassy Thompson, Paige Thompson, Scottie Hogan, Jennifer

Porter, Troy Treaccar and Charlie Boukalter to the big house. The big

houses, respectively, include Georgetown University; UC Santa Barbara; UC

Santa Barbara; Dartmouth University; Stanford University; the U.S. Naval

Academy and the University of Hawaii. Not too bad for a bunch of people

whobegan “messing” in boats.

“Sailing is a sport that is definitely on the rise,” says Kristin

Maberry, a crewman on the Newport Harbor High varsity sailing team. “We

have more girls on the team this year than boys.”

In fact, the varsity team consists of Maberry, Meredith Potter, Kim

Dootsom, Amy Halvorsen, Kelsey Cochran, Whitney Loufek and only three

boys, Gary Grimes, Justin Law and Ryan Marshall. The active junior

varsity team only has one boy, David Diller, and three regular female

sailors: Sara Huey, A.J. Olson and Kilarney Loufek. Both varsity and JV

teams include about 38 members.

The international reputation of the Newport Harbor High Sailing Team

is legendary. Winning several national two-man and team championships in

recent years has made an impression with college coaches. Many young

sailors have parlayed their love for the sport into college careers. In

addition, the team travels up and down the California coast, where as

many as 50 high school teams compete in about eight regattas. If they

qualify in certain events they are able to travel to regattas on the East

Coast, as well.

This year’s team has experienced tough competition with their varsity

placing 12th and sixth and the JV taking a second and third in the first

two regattas held in December and January.

“We lost a lot of seniors, so we are really a young team this year,”

Maberry said. “We’re kind of in a rebuilding mode, but we have some great

ones (sailors) coming up. Sailing obviously requires a large body of open

water and we are lucky to have Newport Harbor.”

Maberry is being recruited by the University of Hawaii women’s sailing

team and said: “I went to Hawaii and met their team. I really liked them

because they were like a family. Right now U of H is my first college

choice, but we’ll see.”

Good luck to the Newport Harbor Sailors, and aloha, Kristin.

* TERRANCE PHILLIPS is the Daily Pilot’s boating writer. You can reach

him via e-mail at [email protected].