Manning the waterways

Alex Coolman

The boat that Don Duffy uses to cruise around Newport Harbor for the city

is a modest, 19-foot, aluminum vessel with a chugging outboard motor.

For the past eight years, Duffy, a city maintenance worker, has zipped

around the water to clean up, tow stranded vessels and prevent things

from getting chaotic for boaters.

In that time, Duffy has learned a simple lesson: Summer is the time when

the action happens.

“There’s just a lot more activity” when the sun is out and the

temperature is up, he said. “There a lot more boats in the harbor, and

you have kids out there with their sailing programs.”It’s not that people

don’t also head out on the water when it’s cold; it’s just that there

seems to be some cosmic connection between sunny days and the delicious

pleasures of the nautical existence.

“When you’re out here in the winter,” Duffy said, “people don’t even

think about boating.”

For city and county officials, summer is the time when maximum

concentration is necessary to make the water safe and fun.

“Everything’s cooking more in the summertime,” said Wes Armand, harbor

inspector for the city.

The county, which employs the harbor patrol, has the bulk of the

enforcement duty in the water. But the city of Newport Beach works along

with harbor patrol officials to keep things running smoothly.

“We coordinate so much with [the county],” Armand said. “What they’re all

about is part and parcel of what our concerns are. With the increased

activity of the charter boat business, the city issues the permits and

enforces the conditions under which they can operate.”

Not only does charter business increase in the summer, Armand said, but

yacht club seasons get into full swing, and there are many more casual

boaters tooling around in whatever space is left over.

“Even the hand-powered vessel traffic increases,” he said, as the

intrepid few attempt to row their way to nautical nirvana.

None of it changes Duffy’s routine too radically: In the winter, he picks

up some garbage, and in the summer he just picks up more garbage.

“It’s amazing all the junk you pick up,” he said.