Sea Scout are earning quite the reputation

Ahoy.

When you read about local sailing champions, what comes to most

people’s minds is which yacht club the sailors hail from. Now you

will have to include the Sea Scouts, who earned a reputation as

national champions. Members of Newport Sea Base’s Sea Scout Ship 711

have just earned two national sailing championships at Chicago’s

Columbia Yacht Club from Aug. 4 to 9.

An unselfish volunteer adult leader, Mike Steward, who himself has

taken very little credit for his Sea Scout Ship 711 accomplishments,

has for years taught numerous boys seamanship, self respect and the

Sea Scout’s duty to our country. I know he must be on cloud nine as

two of his Sea Scout sailors, Tom Hartmann and Trevor Gurley, have

won both the 2002 William I. Koch International Sea Scout Cup and the

Boat/U.S. Sea Scout Cup while competing on Lake Michigan.

Both scouts earned the national championship titles competing with

Sea Scouts from across the U.S. and three other nations. An

interesting note is that this is the first Boat U.S. competition

sailed since the beginning of World War II, to help commemorate the

90th anniversary of the Sea Scouts. Newport’s ship 711 took first and Dana Point’s ship 939 sailors Nathan Prather and Brandon Ferrigno

took third place. It’s exciting news, so keep an eye on the scouts,

both boy and girls, as they become known as competitors in sailing

circle.

As I write this column, I am watching the Pacific sea conditions

for a yacht delivery by Mitch Keeler, who is a San Diego captain who

I work very closely in this business. Keeler is leaving the dock

today to bring a McKinna down from Sausalito to Newport Harbor. At

the same time, I am planning a delivery of a Navigator that I will

skipper from Newport to Alameda next month.

Mother Nature has a sense of humor. The buoys are reporting that

the swells at Point Conception are 3.6 feet at 13 seconds with steady

atmospheric pressure. This is the perfect -- and almost unheard of --

conditions that skippers pray for going uphill to round the point,

however, this is a downhill delivery with seas on the quarter. I know

that when I leave the dock to head up north that Point Conception

will be as nasty as usual, making my crewmember and I question why we

are punishing ourselves again. At least the yacht I will take up

north has stabilizers to take out some of the roll but that

sacrifices at least a knot of speed.

Tip of the week is to check your boat’s anodes and inspect your

boat’s metal parts for signs of electrolysis. Do you know where and

how many zincs are on your boat? Zincs are not normally seen as they

reside in the salt water either on the stern, prop shafts, vessel’s

bottom or in the engine’s heat exchanger. A boat that has its metal

fittings properly wired, known as bonding, will allow the

electrolysis action to attack the zincs first, before corroding the

other metals. If you are seeing metal corrosion, then have your diver

check the zincs in the water and you should check the bonding wire

for corrosion or breakage.

Bob Shigo of Pacific Coast Hull gave an excellent presentation on

zincs during the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce Marine Committee’s

How-To seminar at the Balboa Corinthian Yacht Club last Thursday, not

Wednesday, as I reported in my column. As I mentioned last week, Mark

Silvey will conduct regular How-To seminars with professionals in

specific areas to answer your questions. Last week also included Lisa

Barreth of SuperClean Yacht Service and Greg Fountain of Advanced

Marine Engines and all three gave out their secret tips. Boaters

should plan on attending these events where you can ask the everyday

questions and not be embarrassed.

As I give the crew the order to release the dock lines, I want to

remind everyone that the Newport Beach Harbor Commission is meeting

at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist.Send

him your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story suggestions via

e-mail to Mike@BoathouseTV.com or BoathouseTV.com.