OCC dedicates upgraded center

Gone are the days of sharing showers, restrooms and other facilities.

Gone are the days of the men’s and women’s crew teams having to practice their rowing at the Newport Aquatic Center.

The Orange Coast College’s Sailing and Seamanship Center in Newport Beach has received a serious face lift. Nearly $4 million went into a series of improvements that were officially dedicated Thursday at the center, which is the only one of its kind among community colleges nationwide.

“It’s been a huge difference for us,” said Sheri Crowe, the center’s project manager for the maintenance crew. “It feels like the place is growing up.”

The college-run center is the epicenter for all students who want to learn how to sail. It’s also the site of OCC’s crew teams, whose winning records and great achievements are so great that their nickname has become “The Giant Killers.”

“Sometimes we beat the bigger four-year universities, which is unheard of for a community college,” said Sean Minnis, a port oarsman for the crew, whose records have included wins over Stanford and Oklahoma University.

And now the crew gets to practice at a state-of-the-art facility — thanks to a voter-approved school bond measure in 2002 that raised $365 million for improvement to school facilities and classrooms in Orange County.

Of that $365 million, $4 million went to the unique Sailing and Seamanship Center next door to the Balboa Bay Club and Resort on West Coast Highway.

The redesign of the building was undertaken by Bundy Finkel Architects in Newport Beach.

Keenan Smith, the architect who designed the project, said it was a difficult task because the bottom level of the building had to be lifted up and suspended for quite some time during the renovations because the structure was uneven at ground level.

Smith managed to take the roof of the storage room where the rowing shells are stored and turn it into a full-size gym with at least a dozen machines where students can practice their rowing.

In the back of the gym, there’s a women’s locker room, something that was a long time in coming.

“For a while, this facility was just made for single-gender,” he said, referring to men. “Now, it accommodates both genders.”

But that wasn’t the sole purpose. The docks outside are now accessible to the disabled. The grass in front was taken out, and concrete was poured in, thus enabling the crews to roll their 60-foot shells into the storage bays.

Brad Avery, the center’s director, is happy with the achievements of the design in practice and in aesthetics.

“This was money well spent,” he said, adding that most critical was bringing the facility up to code for earthquake, fire and Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. “People have a passion for boating here. We’re so happy that we could add to that passion and provide a state-of-the-art facility to go with it.”