Captain Jim promoted to commodore of the U.S.S. Duffy

Submitted by Jim Gaughan

On the evening of Saturday, June 13, I, Captain Jim, and my twelve passengers survived a 2-hour Newport Harbor maiden voyage on the U.S.S. Duffy with many laughs and only a few anxious moments. Being a Saturday night, I could see we would be in the thick of heavy, harbor traffic! I had read and was told my 72-year-old bride that “You drive a Duffy like a car; an 8-year-old could navigate one.” So, I concluded, “How difficult can it be?” Experience, however, is the key to understanding that the Duffy steering wheel has a 12 to 18-inch play and it is very easy to over steer to the right or to the left and that there are no brakes. It is also vital to note that a Duffy is not a privileged vessel. This led to some anxious moments!

The beginning of our boat ride resembled what would be a perfect scenario for a Three Stooges comedy. Our course of direction looked like a ZZZZZZZZZZ for about ten minutes as we cruised around several other boats coming and going in all directions.

During the WWII, pilots always said that “God was their co-pilot.” Well, He sent Jeff Newman, my son-in-law, to be my co-pilot. Jeff and Heather were late in arriving, and I was about ready to pull out when they arrived. I told Jeff I didn’t know how to drive the danged boat – nor had anyone else volunteered – and I asked him to help me if I needed it. The anxious moments arrived shortly after I left the dock when I over steered the boat and headed for trouble. I turned to avoid hitting another Duffy having its own problems returning to the dock. With the unexpected “play” in the wheel which controls the rudder, I headed in the direction of an oncoming Balboa Ferry . . .

Jeff took over the wheel when I was about to take the twelve of us into another Duffy and the Balboa Ferry! However, I “stayed the course” with Jeff teaching me how to control the steering to keep the Duffy going straight ahead and how to make gradual turns and shift into reverse to slow down.

It was necessary for Jeff to come to the rescue on at least three other occasions when a novice sailor could have gotten into trouble. One was when we were going between a row of yachts anchored in the harbor to our left and anchored to docks on our right. A yacht came out of its dock directly in front of us and I shifted the gears to “back-up” to slow our boat down before Jeff took over. Another distracting moment was finding us surrounded by three groups of young maidens on paddle boards, having to keep my concentration and not be diverted by their charms thereby avoiding disaster. Then when we were going between an at least 10-story Party Boat and a very, very large yacht, Jeff took over as he anticipated that we would be buffeted about by the swells created by these large boats.

My passengers appeared either delirious or distracted by food, beverage and conversations – perhaps missing some of the narrow escapes of our cruise. Overall, a fun time was had by all and by the end of the trip I was promoted to Commodore! We are all counting the weeks until our next Newport Harbor Duffy adventure . . .