We’re all stars here at the boat shows

MIKE WHITEHEAD

Ahoy.

One if by land and two if by sea, as here come the boat shows, and

more than $150 million worth of boats are floating the harbor just

waiting for you. The Newport Boat Show is underway through Sunday at

the Lido Marina Village. Yesterday at the boat show, producer and Sea

magazine publisher Duncan McIntosh inducted three boating industry

leaders into the Newport Boat Show Hall of Fame.

Dick Valdes of Mediterranean Yachts, Jack Cole with Skipjack

Yachts and Roger MacGregor of MacGregor Yacht Corp. have been honored

for their contributions to the success of boating in Orange County.

You can see the plaques at the Sea magazine’s offices, which are in

Irvine, and while at the office you can read a few of my boat review

articles.

Approaching on your radar screen near the end of the month is the

Southern California’s Marine Assn.’s 2004 Boat Show at the Dunes in

Newport Beach. The association now produces six boat shows annually

with the addition of the Dunes Show, which is the third Southern

California Marine Assn. show this year.

“Attendance was up 25% at the Orange County show [held at the

Anaheim Convention Center] we just wrapped Sunday [April 4], and the

boating and accessories dealers on hand reported strong traffic and a

significant increase in sales,” said Dave Geoffroy, executive

director of the association.

I will have call-ins from both boat shows to my radio show every

Sunday this month so that we can keep you up to date on the current

show happenings. The boat shows are a huge boon to our area and our

maritime businesses. Show your support and attend the shows, or at

least stop by and say hello to me.

Speaking of saying hello, I receive a lot of feedback when I meet

many of you out and about on the waterfront, and many of you have

commented about last week’s column, where I poked fun at the local

headlines. My informal survey from speaking with you is that storm

drains are still the number one offender that pollutes our harbor --

how true. Then you told me that every local knows not to eat the

contaminated fish caught in the bay -- duh. Finally, boaters

commented about their disgust at the thousands of gallons of sewage

that is frequently dumped into our “no discharge” harbor from the

sewer lines that regularly clough or break. A few boaters made the

observation that if all the boaters were to empty their holding tanks

into the harbor at the same time, then that would still not come

close to the amount from one sewer line spill. I promise to report on

the headlines once again in a future column, and send me your

funniest headlines.

MEETINGS OF THE WEEK

The dedication of the Newport Sea Base is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday with activities all day and the actual dedication ceremony

at 12:30 p.m. The activities will continue until 4 p.m., which

include viewing the tall ships Argus and Lynx, the shark mobile,

pirates singing sea shanties and much more.

You can contact Jennifer Keating at (714) 546-8558, ext. 136 for

more information on the dedication and to RSVP. The sea base’s

website is https://www.seabase.org.

Then on Wednesday, you will have the chance to meet our newly

appointed harbor master at the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce’s

Marine Committee evening event. As I mentioned in a previous column,

Capt. Greg Russell was recently promoted to the top spot, but he is

not new to the harbor. Greg has been serving as second in command at

the Harbor Patrol for years, plus he has served twice as the acting

harbor master. Cruise on over to the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club at 5

p.m. and call the chamber at (949) 729-4400 for the whole

scuttlebutt.

Tune in to my “Boathouse Radio Show” this and every Sunday from 4

to 5 p.m. on KCBQ-AM (1170), or listen over the Internet at

https://www.boathouseradio. com.

You can call in to the toll-free listener line at (888) 344-1170

and join in on Southern California’s only boating talk radio show,

broadcasting along the coast from San Diego to Oxnard and out to

Santa Catalina Island.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist. Send

him your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story suggestions by

e-mail to [email protected] or visit https://www.boathousetv.com.