COSTA MESA : Man’s ‘Obsession’ Is Given to OCC

One man’s “Obsession” is soon to become the prize of Orange Coast College’s marine academy.

Obsession, a 70-foot state-of-the-art racing sloop, has been donated to the Costa Mesa community college by a retired Florida communications executive. Its resale value is estimated at $800,000 in the current market, but college officials say owner Stephen R. Nichols has put nearly $2 million into the vessel, making it the single largest donation the college has ever received.

“She is just gorgeous,” said David A. Grant, president of Orange Coast and the former director of the college’s popular sailing and rowing center in Newport Beach. “She’s going to be one of the most impressive vessels in Newport Bay.”

The tall-masted, maroon yacht was built in 1986 and has an aluminum hull and titanium fittings. It will come to Orange Coast with 25 bags of sails and sophisticated electronics. It was designed to be raced with a crew of 20.

Nichols, 49, said he decided to give up the agile yacht earlier this year when he realized that he no longer had time for racing. Rather than sell it, he decided to donate the vessel.

“It’s sort of like giving up a child,” Nichols said Monday from his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “I wanted to make sure the boat would be used where the most people could enjoy it. It’s an experience I’d like to share with people. And Orange Coast was far superior than any of my other options.”

Nichols made a visit to the Newport Beach sailing center last spring and was favorably impressed.

“Orange Coast College has a lot of dedicated people with the skills necessary to maintain a boat like that, to repair the sails, to do the metalwork and keep her polished,” he said. “And for their purposes, it’s an excellent platform. They can get 30 or 40 students out for a day sail and get them trained.”

Obsession will sail from Tampa, where she is berthed, in about three weeks, Grant said. The 5,000-mile journey through the Panama Canal is expected to take about five or six weeks. A reception committee of fireboats and other Orange Coast vessels is being planned, he said.

Asked who would crew Obsession on the journey, Grant said, only half-joking: “I’m hoping my name is at the top of the list.”