Get with the program

MIKE WHITEHEAD

Ahoy.

Who knows that National Fishing and Boating Week starts tomorrow?

All across America, there are special events planned, but I cannot

find any events locally in the largest recreational harbor in the

world. I did find events at Lincoln Park in Los Angeles, Big Bear

Lake, Crestline, Pinecrest Lake and Willows.

BoatU.S. is encouraging all boaters and anglers to take advantage

of the special events planned for the National Fishing and Boating

Week from Saturday through June 13.

“This is a great week to introduce kids, friends or anyone in the

family to boating and fishing,” said Richard Schwartz, chairman and

founder of BoatU.S. “These two activities bring families together,

help us understand the natural world around us and simply provide

great fun.”

The events are sponsored by a wide variety of marine-related

businesses, retailers, nonprofits, state and local government

agencies. You can read a list of events for National Fishing and

Boating Week and the remainder of the year at https://www.Water

WorksWonders.org and click on the events tab.

I hope Newport Beach’s harbor commissioners mention the National

Fishing and Boating Week at their next meeting on Wednesday. The

commissioners are the ones who preside over Newport Harbor, and, as

such, they need to acknowledge and support events such as these.

Also, other organizations should acknowledge the National Fishing

and Boating Week such as Newport’s Coastal/Bay Water Quality

Committee, the Marine Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, the

Southern California Marine Assn., California Yacht Brokers Assn. and

every yacht club.

I read an interesting letter to the editor from Sarah Pedersen

about the Marinapark area as one of the last bay-front open spaces

left in the city. Her letter made sense, and I wonder what happened

to the city’s development plans that I saw in the 1980s for

developing that area into a public park from 18th Street to 15th

Street between Balboa Boulevard and the bay. I remember the plans

showed the American Legion Post, bike paths, a sailing center, senior

citizen center and lots of open space.

Also, I remember in the ‘80s that you could launch your small,

trailerable boat at 18th Street until a post was installed that

blocked the trailers from rolling across the sand. After that, the

harbor became void of the Hobie Cats, Pringles and other small craft

simply because there is not a public boat launch ramp in the lower

bay.

Marinapark could remain open to the public as a public park

complete with a boat launch ramp and boat-trailer parking. What a

concept of a project that promotes boating and directly provides

access for small craft to the water. This park could be a benefit to

the mooring holders as well with dinghy storage racks, and let’s not

forget the work boats in the harbor. The work-boat crews need

somewhere to load supplies such as mooring chain and new, partially

built docks and to remove old docks.

Wow, a place to provide access to launch small trailerable boats,

what a concept.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Minimize your boat’s wake in the harbor. Former submariner Richard

Lee, who now stays on top of the water, sent me an e-mail about a

clueless boater kicking up a wake in a narrow channel. Then, when

another boater yelled for him to slow down, he justified his wake by

stating that he was going the speed limit.

First, boaters are responsible for any damage caused by their wake

regardless of speed. The law of speed in Newport is “5 mph or No

Wake” for both power and sail. There is a scarcely known caveat

called “steerage,” where you can exceed 5 mph only to maintain

steerage. For example: The storm winds are blowing your boat onto the

beach, so you need to cruise a little faster to compensate the wind

effect. Maybe this caveat will work for the beer-can races.

Tune in to my “Boathouse Radio Show” every Saturday from noon to 1

p.m. on KCBQ-AM (1170). You can join in during the nation’s No. 1

boating talk radio show by calling the listener line at (888)

344-1170, and you can listen worldwide over the Internet at

https://www.boat houseradio.com.

Safe voyages.

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

him your thoughts and story suggestions by e-mail to

mike@boathousetv.com.