The Harbor Report: Breathtaking boats and a busy bay

I had been walking with my head down, trying not to jam my foot into a dock cleat looking for a story.

Finally, I lifted up my head and found the harbor full of activity.

I started my rounds at the Newport Harbor Shipyard. Before my eyes: one of my all time dream boats.

Billy Joel’s previous vessel “Vendetta” had just arrived at the shipyard and will soon grace our harbor. This 57-foot Gatsby-era commuter yacht designed by Doug Zurn, and built by Derecktor in 2005, is absolutely stunning.

I am a huge fan of commuter-style yachts and had noticed “Vendetta” as soon as she was listed, thinking how perfect she would be over in Catalina. With a reported speed of 47 knots, the new owner — and up to six guests — can make it to the island in less than an hour.

She is guaranteed to be on Newport Beach’s most interesting power boat list this year.

After taking a couple of deep breaths and regaining my composure, I looked across the bay and noticed that the New Port Marina and office buildings near the Crab Cooker on Balboa Peninsula are almost complete. From across the bay, it appears this marina will have will have more than 16 slips able to hold 55-foot boats.

From the shipyard, I normally take a look at how many big boats there are on Lido Peninsula in the BellPort Marina. Right now the big slips are at capacity, and I counted nine boats over 70 feet.

My next stop was next to the Lido Sailing Club to get an idea of how many big charter boat are in town. I counted 14, a number that stays rather consistent throughout the year.

I continued to Basin Shipyard, where the Stan Miller Invitational fishing tournament was under way. The word was that close to 40 boats will be competing for tuna, yellowtail, dorado, swordfish and marlin release categories.

The tournament kicked off Sept. 9 at Basin Marine Shipyard. Awards were planned for Sept. 11 at the shipyard.

I recently saw Noel Plutchak. Some of you might recall that Plutchak repairs our harbor pump-out stations.

Plutchak is still having problems with boaters using the pump-outs as bilge pumps. When boaters do this the pumps suck up loose metal and screws, which in turn cuts the vacuum hoses inside the pumps at a replacement cost of $1,000.

The pump-out hoses are bound to get smaller so that the boaters cannot take the nozzles down below their boats and into their bilges.

Not to make a pun, but that that really sucks because some of us have our deck flanges in the bow or in the stern.

So if you see someone coming up from down below with the pump-out nozzle, you can always take the make and the name of the boat and drop me a note at [email protected].

I will discreetly pass the boat names on to the proper authorities and marina operators.

I am starting to look around the harbor for boats to place in Newport Beach’s 20 Most Interesting Boats this November. If you see anything I should mention, please drop me a note.

Boat name of the week: “Lido Isle Watt Club”

Sea ya.

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LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.