Here since the start

Donald Pedersen opened his boatyard in 1935 and at age 94 has no plans to sell it anytime soon.On a warm Wednesday afternoon, Newport Beach resident Donald Pedersen parked his car just feet from Newport Harbor at his Mariner’s Mile boatyard.

If he had been in that very spot decades earlier, Pedersen would have viewed a very different scene. When he opened the boatyard in the 1935, there was nothing but shrubbery across the way on Lido Isle.

Pedersen, who celebrated his 94th birthday on Friday, has been involved in boat construction most of his life.

He was born in New York and came to Southern California by train when he was 5 years old.

As Pederson tells the story, no bridges crossed the Mississippi River in 1917. So workers broke apart the train, loaded pieces of it onto barges and then reassembled it on the other side.

Pedersen and his mother lived on Wilson Street in Costa Mesa, which he said was a rural community.

“It was an agricultural area,” Pederson said. “There were lots of orange and lemon trees, and only one store, TeWinkle’s General Store, and a Methodist church.”

Pedersen said he and his sister used to sit near their house and watch the steam train come into town from Riverside. He said the conductor or others on board lightly tossed oranges to the children as a reward for watching the train.

As Pedersen grew older, he became interested in boats. He started by building 18-foot sailboats, called “flatties,” in his garage. According to Pedersen, those were the boats that propelled his business.

“I thought I ought to build boats on the water,” he said. “I needed a separate space.”

Pedersen persuaded his father to buy a 50-foot plot of shore-front property in 1935. He said his father paid $2,750 to buy what is now called Vikings Port.

Pedersen’s relatives own property on either side of him. During his heyday of building boats, his clients included the U.S. Coast Guard, the Navy and the Coca-Cola Co.

Viking wooden sailboats were some of Pedersen’s most popular items, he said. A small crew helped him out in the shop.

In 1942, Pedersen moved to Newport Beach. He said he bought his house for $3,840.

A slew of restaurants and stores, including a wig shop, now surround the Vikings Port boatyard. Pedersen still owns the land and doesn’t plan to give it up.

“Why would I sell it?” he said.

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