ON THE WATER -- Handling a little bit of everything

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT HARBOR -- Getting the job as the Balboa Yacht Basin supervisor

kind of just happened by accident.

But 14 years later, John Reilly said he’s glad he traded in coin

Laundromats, which he owned before, for an office overlooking the water.

“These are very nice, high-type people,” he said. “A coin Laundromat

has a different clientele, so to speak.”

A Newport Beach native, Reilly got into water activities early on.

“I sailed, I fished, I surfed,” he said. “I did the whole thing.”

On the wall in his office hang several faded photos of his wife,

Jeanne, a French and Spanish teacher at Newport Harbor High School.

Reilly’s also in many of them, a trophy marlin dangling between the

couple in one.

Jeanne once caught a 201-pound specimen, Reilly said, adding that he

wasn’t the least bit jealous.

“I’ve got more marlin than she has,” he said, smiling. “But she got

the big one.”

As the manager of the city-owned basin, which includes 172 boat slips,

the Galley Cafe, 39 garages, a shipyard and three apartments, Reilly’s

job is to take care of everything.

He gets there about 7 a.m. and stays until 4 p.m. During that time, he

takes care of cracked dock boards, broken rails, the trash and bathrooms,

collects rent checks and manages tenant accounts.

“I’m basically maintaining the whole facility,” he said, adding that

he has a part-time helper to keep things in order. While the basin’s

annual budget is $75,000 a year, it takes in about $1.5 million in

revenues, Reilly said.

Since some of the boat owners have been renting their slips for

decades -- one of them has been there since 1949 -- he’s formed

relationships with many of them over the years.

Asked why people would rent slips in the city marina rather than at a

private yacht club, Reilly said boat owners pay less rent.

And “this is one of the nicer facilities in the bay,” he said.

But then again, skippers don’t really have much choice about where to

park their boats in Newport Harbor.

“There’s no slips,” Reilly said, noting there’s a long waiting list

for spaces in the basin. “The demand in Newport is just tremendous ...

We’re absolutely booked.”