June Casagrande Ed Quesada can’t imagine what...
June Casagrande
Ed Quesada can’t imagine what his life will be like if the South
Shore Yacht Club disappears.
Along with wife Connie, he’s been a member for 12 years. His son
was married there. Three or four times a week, Ed and Connie come to
the club to socialize a bit before hitting the water on their boat,
“Serena.”
“It’s a very special place,” Quesada said. “The words ‘yacht club’
sometimes denote exclusivity, but we are a very inclusive kind of
club. If this goes away, we would never be able to replace what we
have now.”
The club’s 45-year tradition of making the water accessible to
everyone could soon come to an end.
The property where the club has leased its space on the harbor
since the 1950s was purchased more than a year ago by a charter boat
operator.
In April 2004, their lease will expire. At that time, the new
owner has warned, the $10,000-a-month rent may double.
Or, worse for club members, the new owner could choose to move the
120-foot charter boat Icon from its spot on Lido to the yacht club’s
West Coast Highway location, squeezing or nudging out completely the
small-time sailors now taking up the club’s 65-foot frontage.
The new owner has offered to help move the club to Lido, but for
some, it just wouldn’t be the same.
“We’d lose our parking. We’d lose the ambience of the club. It
would affect our per-foot feet,” said Chuck Turmell, vice commodore
of South Shore Yacht Club.
Members will meet next month to discuss what they want to do, but
they’re still not even sure what their options are. It’s up to the
new owner to decide how to use the property and whether to offer
anything to the club members. In the end, the club may be forced to
move, its rent at its current site could double, or it could
disappear altogether.
“There are no other entry-level clubs on the harbor, no other
places where people can come and learn boating and not pay huge
fees,” Quesada said. “If the average person has no access to the
water, what’s going to happen to the harbor?”
The club, which has 100-plus members, charges only $80 a month for
members after a $150 initiation fee. There’s also a $40-a-year
maintenance fee, which pays for things such as paint and cleaning
supplies.
But the labor comes from the members themselves, who must
regularly change lightbulbs, clean the dining area and perform other
tasks.
Membership at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, by comparison, includes
a $4,000 initiation fee and $140-a-month dues, plus a minimum of $60
a month spent on food and drinks. The full-service club does not
require its members to do any labor.
“If I have to go somewhere else, it will cost me at least $100, if
not $200 a month more to operate my vessel in Newport Beach,” said
Gail Hine, a member of the club since 1989 and owner of the 24-foot
racing sloop “Hummer.”
Turmell said that club leaders are working with Newport Beach City
Hall in the hope that officials will agree it’s time to restrict
commercial boats on the Coast Highway side of the harbor.
This could be the club’s only hope, he said.
“This is the last location where it’s even remotely affordable for
recreational boater to get involved in sailing,” Turmell said.
“There’s a lot of emotion attached to this recent event because many
people feel that more and more charter boats are entering the harbor.
They’re not only adding competing traffic, but there’s a noise
nuisance. It brings in more boat traffic, more highway traffic more
noise pollution.
“There’s very little room any more for the recreational boater,”
he said. “When do you let the harbor be a harbor? When do you give
the harbor back to the people? We think it’s reasonable to ask the
city to seriously consider not approving a permit to locate another
huge charter boat on the Coast Highway side.”
In the meantime, the members say they will continue to weigh their
options and keep their fingers crossed.
“I’d hate to see something like this go away,” said Greg Kafka, a
member since 1979. “It’s a great place.”
* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.
She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at
june.casagrande@latimes.com.
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