LOOKING BACK

Young Chang

We think of the fish canneries and boat parades when we think of

Newport Beach’s harbor, but one of the most integral harbor features to

shape the city way back when was the Lido Shipyard.

During World War II, local businessman Edgar Hill convinced a

boat-building businessman named Clarence Ackerman to move his work to

Newport Harbor.

The company and a handful of starters headed up the Lido Shipyard,

which grew over the years and built $4 million worth of boats for the

U.S. Navy during World War II. The varieties included sub chasers,

minesweepers and other small boats.

James Felton’s “Newport Beach, The First Century” tells us that

shipyard workers churned out one boat a week at one point.

“It gave a lot of people jobs, especially after World War II started

‘cause they were building all these boats over there,” said George Grupe,

a longtime Newport Beach resident and historian.

After the war, the group of men who started the business sold the

shipyard to Consolidated Steel, which ran the yard for three years and

transformed it into a business that repaired vessels instead of

constructing them.

The Curci-Turner Company took over Lido Peninsula in 1949, taking over

the shipyard as well. A Harold L. “Buck” Ayres ran the business -- he

knew John Curci, Sr. through a chance conversation about the

Newport-Ensenada race -- and he led the shipyard through decades of ship

repairs.

Felton’s history says the shipyard, under Ayres’ leadership, completed

more than 30,000 maintenance jobs that included remodelings on every kind

of boat there was.

“There was no skipper or boat owner on the Pacific Coast who didn’t

know the Lido Shipyard, with its 500-ton marine railway, its 50-ton

vertical lift, and its 20-ton crane,” the book says.

Ayres retired 14 years ago, after which the Curci family renovated the

shipyard.

Grupe added that other than the fish canneries of the ‘50s, the Lido

Shipyard was probably the city’s biggest employer.

Ed Richardson, a yacht broker and a longtime Newport Beach resident,

said the shipyard is still going strong today.

“It’s very active in working on large and small boats,” Richardson

said. “They’re doing bottom jobs, maintenance, there’s not a thing they

can’t do.”

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at young.chang@latimes.com; or mail her at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.