Public berthing spaces slip away

Deirdre Newman

Commercial and sport fishermen have been angling in the harbor for

more than a century, even before a railroad was built connecting the

wharf to Santa Ana in 1891.

“At one time, the harbor was perhaps the most popular port for

deep-sea fishing,” wrote Hugh McMillan in “Newport Beach, The First

Century, 1888-1988.” “Between commercial fishing and sport fishing,

there has always been a place for the person who enjoys fish

stories.”

Fish stories still abound, but finding a place for commercial

sportfishing boats to dock has gotten more difficult.

As the area evolved from a shipping wharf to a place for the

well-heeled to dock their yachts, the amount of public dock space

dropped dramatically.

This loss was underscored when the temporary bait boat serving the

harbor had to leave its dock behind the Crab Cooker restaurant on

Newport Boulevard last month. Finding another spot for it proved

challenging.

This bait boat, being used until the regular bait boat is

repaired, finally found a temporary home, but the lack of public

docking space remains, said Norris Tapp, manager of Davey’s Locker

Sportfishing, which docks part of its fleet at the same site.

“There’s very, very, very little public dockage access, and that

is even very restrictive of how long you can tie up and the amount

you have to pay for it,” Tapp said. “It’s horrible.”

An unpromising view

Davey’s Locker, in the Balboa Pavilion, works with owners of four

boats to offer public fishing and whale watching and serves about

40,000 to 50,000 people a year, Tapp said. But it only has two slips

for the boats, Tapp said. So for about 13 years, two of the boat

owners have rented slips behind the Crab Cooker. When the restaurant

was bought by ETCO Investment, prices skyrocketed, Tapp said.

“The reason the [Newport Boulevard] facility is so valuable is

that it’s one of the only places in the whole harbor that can

accommodate 50-foot-plus boats,” Tapp said.

A representative of ETCO could not be reached for comment.

One of the boats is still docked at the Newport Boulevard site, at

least for now. But the owner of the other boat couldn’t afford the

rent, Tapp said, and docks at Davey’s Locker. But even that space

will soon be off limits, because owners of the Harborside restaurant

next door don’t want the 75-foot boat blocking their view. Until the

end of September, the boat was providing twilight whale-watching

trips and wasn’t getting back into the harbor until 1 a.m., so it

wasn’t an issue, Tapp said.

“I just bought and refurbished the restaurant and poured a lot of

money into it, and to look at the side of a boat -- it’s not an

attractive sight,” Harborside co-owner Dave Salisbury said.

With such few options for huge commercial fishing boats, Tapp

would like to see more docks created, perhaps by the city.

“One of the proposals I’ve put forward is trying to investigate

the possibilities of some kind of facility being built where it can

accommodate 10 boats in excess of 60 to 80 feet,” Tapp said. “Maybe

the city would build it. We have no problem understanding and paying

for rent. If there was a facility, for whoever built it, there would

be a financial return.”

Docks are more appropriate than moorings -- which are not attached

to land -- for these types of boats because they provide amenities

like fresh water and shore power to keep the systems operating on the

boats overnight, Tapp said.

Rents floating out to sea

Bill Scott, owner and operator of Reveille Charters, which

provides fishing and whale-watching tours out of the Fun Zone, said

he is able to afford dock space for his boat. But he’s concerned that

increasing dock rates could eventually force him out of business.

“We can’t just raise our rates to say, ‘The slips went up, so this

is what the rate is,’ because then the guys in Santa Ana can’t afford

to go fishing with us,” Scott said. “I become too expensive.”

Even residents who have no vested interest in sportfishing or

whale-watching tours bemoan the lack of space for these kinds of

boats.

“I thought it was kind of a tragedy that they don’t have any space

available for the commercial boats,” said John Lindsey, who worked on

commercial fishing boats out of Balboa Pier as a child. “ We only

need just a few.”

Because all the parcels around the harbor are privately owned, it

is not profitable for the city to buy a slice of harbor-front

property and rent it out, Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway said.

“We have a lot of other higher-priority needs in our city than

specifically that,” Ridgeway said.

The city is getting a committee together to examine possible sites

for overnight docking of large boats, Ridgeway said. But if a site is

found, it would not be for commercial fishing and whale-watching

boats, Ridgeway said. Barges and boats involved in dredging and the

like would have priority.

The commercial-boating operations should be able to fend for

themselves, because they are money-making operations, Ridgeway said.

“They’re not nonprofits -- they’re certainly there for the

profit,” Ridgeway said.

A shortage of short stays

The trouble isn’t limited to commercial boat owners. There are

also no city-owned public docks for visitors if they want to stay for

a few days.

There are city-owned public docks around the harbor, but they can

be used for only 20 minutes.

The county does rent out some slips and moorings that can be used

for up to five days at a stretch with restrictions depending on the

time of year. These are mostly for boaters traveling north to south,

said Deputy Steve McCormick with the Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol.

The city should do more to entice tourists by boat, who will then

plunk down their money in hotels and enjoy the city’s restaurants,

Lindsey said.

“This town was built basically on the recreational use of our

facilities, and now it’s migrated away from that in some instances,”

Lindsey said. “And it’s important to maintain the core attractions

that bring people to this city that generate revenue.”

But recreation doesn’t mean public access, Ridgeway said.

“This was designed and built as a private boat harbor with private

ownership,” Ridgeway said.

Out-of-towners may tie up here for longer than it takes to get a

fast-food burger and fries in the future.

The Harbor Resources Commission this month will consider

increasing time limits on three of the four sides of the city-owned

public docks. The most time available would be 12 hours.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].