June Casagrande Ed Quesada can’t imagine what...

June Casagrande

Ed Quesada can’t imagine what his life will be like if the South

Shore Yacht Club disappears.

Along with wife Connie, he’s been a member for 12 years. His son

was married there. Three or four times a week, Ed and Connie come to

the club to socialize a bit before hitting the water on their boat,

“Serena.”

“It’s a very special place,” Quesada said. “The words ‘yacht club’

sometimes denote exclusivity, but we are a very inclusive kind of

club. If this goes away, we would never be able to replace what we

have now.”

The club’s 45-year tradition of making the water accessible to

everyone could soon come to an end.

The property where the club has leased its space on the harbor

since the 1950s was purchased more than a year ago by a charter boat

operator.

In April 2004, their lease will expire. At that time, the new

owner has warned, the $10,000-a-month rent may double.

Or, worse for club members, the new owner could choose to move the

120-foot charter boat Icon from its spot on Lido to the yacht club’s

West Coast Highway location, squeezing or nudging out completely the

small-time sailors now taking up the club’s 65-foot frontage.

The new owner has offered to help move the club to Lido, but for

some, it just wouldn’t be the same.

“We’d lose our parking. We’d lose the ambience of the club. It

would affect our per-foot feet,” said Chuck Turmell, vice commodore

of South Shore Yacht Club.

Members will meet next month to discuss what they want to do, but

they’re still not even sure what their options are. It’s up to the

new owner to decide how to use the property and whether to offer

anything to the club members. In the end, the club may be forced to

move, its rent at its current site could double, or it could

disappear altogether.

“There are no other entry-level clubs on the harbor, no other

places where people can come and learn boating and not pay huge

fees,” Quesada said. “If the average person has no access to the

water, what’s going to happen to the harbor?”

The club, which has 100-plus members, charges only $80 a month for

members after a $150 initiation fee. There’s also a $40-a-year

maintenance fee, which pays for things such as paint and cleaning

supplies.

But the labor comes from the members themselves, who must

regularly change lightbulbs, clean the dining area and perform other

tasks.

Membership at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, by comparison, includes

a $4,000 initiation fee and $140-a-month dues, plus a minimum of $60

a month spent on food and drinks. The full-service club does not

require its members to do any labor.

“If I have to go somewhere else, it will cost me at least $100, if

not $200 a month more to operate my vessel in Newport Beach,” said

Gail Hine, a member of the club since 1989 and owner of the 24-foot

racing sloop “Hummer.”

Turmell said that club leaders are working with Newport Beach City

Hall in the hope that officials will agree it’s time to restrict

commercial boats on the Coast Highway side of the harbor.

This could be the club’s only hope, he said.

“This is the last location where it’s even remotely affordable for

recreational boater to get involved in sailing,” Turmell said.

“There’s a lot of emotion attached to this recent event because many

people feel that more and more charter boats are entering the harbor.

They’re not only adding competing traffic, but there’s a noise

nuisance. It brings in more boat traffic, more highway traffic more

noise pollution.

“There’s very little room any more for the recreational boater,”

he said. “When do you let the harbor be a harbor? When do you give

the harbor back to the people? We think it’s reasonable to ask the

city to seriously consider not approving a permit to locate another

huge charter boat on the Coast Highway side.”

In the meantime, the members say they will continue to weigh their

options and keep their fingers crossed.

“I’d hate to see something like this go away,” said Greg Kafka, a

member since 1979. “It’s a great place.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].