OXNARD : Maritime Days Festival Offers Fun by the Sea

Scattered among the old fishhooks and used deep-sea diving equipment lay the remnants of a maritime past: a 1934 wooden deck chair from the Queen Mary, brass spyglasses and an assortment of wood-carved helms.

For the seaman selling the peculiar objets d’art Saturday, the seaside swap meet was an opportunity to unload some old junk.

But for the dozens of visitors attending the sixth annual Maritime Days festival at the Channel Islands Harbor, the nautical tidbits were a brush with history.

Along with the swap meet, Saturday’s events featured arts and crafts, a sand-sculpture contest and live entertainment at Fisherman’s Wharf. Sponsored by local businesses, the three-day festival concludes today.

“The purpose is simply to draw attention to the harbor by facilitating waterside activities,” Coast Chandlery owner Fred Buenger said.

“There are a lot of people in Ventura County who have never been to the harbor,” he said. “We would like to introduce it to people.”

Gesturing to a late 19th-Century brass chest at the swap meet, Roger--a hawker who declined to give his last name--explained the box’s historical significance to a couple strolling the harbor.

“They used to build these for English people to hold the coal,” the sailor from Cabo San Lucas said. “It’s worth $2,500.”

Coast Chandlery sponsored a fishing derby which drew about 25 to 30 children Saturday morning. Youngsters were awarded prizes for the heaviest, longest and ugliest fish.

And at the sand sculpture contest on Hollywood Beach, Susan and Tom O’Brien of Port Hueneme joined their son Patrick, 4, in molding a 12-foot-long shark out of damp sand at the ocean’s edge.

“This is the shark you would catch off the coast of the Channel Islands--hopefully on a hook, not a surfboard,” Susan said, patting the sand creature’s side.

“His name is Jaws,” Patrick piped up, while he and his dad carved a sand surfer’s leg entering the great white’s gaping mouth.

Nearby, Oxnard youths Billy Peet, 14, and Thomas Buenger, debated what kind of sculpture to create.

“We thought, ‘Hey, we’ll build the Monterey Bay Aquarium,’ ” Thomas said. “But we couldn’t do the underground tunnel for the sharks. Then we decided just to do a castle.”