Smooth sailing ahead for boat

Newport Beach city officials now say they can’t do anything about a 72-foot, vintage sailing ship that has been sitting in Newport Beach resident Dennis Holland’s yard and irritating his neighbors for the past three years.

Current city code allows homeowners to store and restore their boats on their property, City Councilman Don Webb said.

“There are a lot of instances where people have much smaller boats in their back yards and nobody ever complains about it,” Webb said. “It’s primarily the size and volume of the boat that the neighbors have a problem with.”

Holland, a master shipwright, saved Shawnee, a 1916, 72-foot ketch from sinking in Newport Harbor three years ago. The boat sailed from Southern California to Tahiti in the first Tahiti race in 1925. Holland is fixing up the boat, which towers over his residential neighborhood. The prow of the vessel juts over the city street.

The City Council could look at passing a new ordinance within the next year that would regulate ambitious restoration projects like Holland’s, Webb said.

“We’re not interested in regulating the smaller, do-it-yourself boat, but when you have a boat that literally goes from property line to property line and is almost two stories tall, we need to rethink what we allow,” Webb said.

City officials met with about six fed-up homeowners from Holland’s Newport Heights neighborhood earlier this week and told them there wasn’t much they could do about Holland’s boat.

“We can’t act as quickly as neighbors would like because Mr. Holland has been very careful about complying with city codes with regards to the boat,” said Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood.

Neighbors have complained to the city about the lead paint and other toxic materials that people in the neighborhood might be exposed to while the boat is being restored. They’re also angered about the massive size of the boat and how long it’s been parked next to Holland’s Newport Heights home.

“I think it’s a wonderful project, but it doesn’t have any business in a residential neighborhood,” said one of Holland’s neighbors, who did not want to be named. “Nobody has really spoken about what the old boat might have in terms of toxins in it and what it’s doing to property values in the area.”

Holland said moving the boat would cost him at least $14,000, and storing it at a dry-dock facility would cost at least $25,000 more.

He’s also battling prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones in several places. Holland hopes to keep working on the boat as long as his health will allow.

“I’ve learned the secret to a project like this is living next to it,” Holland said. “If it’s at a dry dock, then it’s easy to procrastinate and sit in front of the television.”