Skipper

Ahoy. Last week in the Daily Pilot, there was a picture of a 57-foot yacht sitting on the rocks off Crystal Cove State Park. The story reported that the owner fell asleep while the boat was on autopilot from Avalon to Newport Harbor. The vessel caught my eye because, approximately a year earlier, I had delivered that boat from Ensenada, Mexico, to Newport Beach. I remember the boat because it was a new Carver that could get up on top of the water and cruise at a decent speed for that size of yacht.

Corona del Mar High's sailing team finished second in the A and B divisions of the annual Rose Bowl Regatta Saturday and Sunday in Alameda Bay while Newport Harbor finished third. CdM's Division A skipper was Phil Stemler with crew Adrienne Patterson. Division B skipper was Charlie Ullman with crew Gloria Hanson. Newport Harbor Division A skipper was Justin Law with crew Killarney Loufek. Division B skipper Gary Grimes was with crew Whitney Loufek. CdM's junior varsity took third place.

Newport Harbor High’s sailing team won’t be moving from atop the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Assn. standings any time soon. That’s because the Sailors earned second place in the 25th annual Rose Bowl Regatta at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club Jan. 3. Newport Harbor was one of 41 high schools from all over California competing in the two-day regatta, with 54 teams sailing in the Gold and Silver Division. Newport Harbor’s varsity team, consisting of skipper Chris Segerblom with crew Nicole Grice, as well as skipper Randall Hause with crew Francesca Cappellini finished second among 27 teams in the Gold Division.

The Newport Harbor High School and Corona del Mar High School sailing teams continued their dominance in the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Assn. (PCISA) on Saturday and Sunday by taking second through fifth place at the PCISA All-Girls Invitational Regatta at the San Diego Yacht Club. Thirteen high school girl teams from the San Francisco Bay Area to the San Diego area competed in the regatta in the San Diego Bay and off Shelter Island. There were two days of racing with a total of 18 races combined with the A and B divisions.

Ahoy, Wow, it is time once again for all the boaters to start planning and decorating your vessels for the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade. This is the centennial year for the parade, which will cruise around the harbor nightly from Dec. 17 to 21. Rumors are floating around that fireworks will kick off this year’s parade on Wednesday, just before the start of the parade. Annually, I lend my sage advice for safety when planning the decorations for your boat, kayak, canoe, PWC, paddleboard or submarine.

NEWPORT BEACH — Through 13 races at the 42nd annual Governor’s Cup, Newport Harbor Yacht Club was perfect. Two more victories and skipper Michael Menninger’s name would go in the record books. Only seven other skippers have won the event twice. Menninger was on his way to winning it for the second straight year until Newport Harbor lost for the first time. It was the wrong time to drop a race. The best-of-three finals had just begun against Cruising Yacht Club of Australia on Sunday.

Magnitude 80 repeated its first-to-finish performance in the 61st Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race Saturday, but was denied another record for its résumé as the wind shut down in Todos Santos Bay. Magnitude 80, with its skipper Doug Baker of Long Beach, finished in 16 hours, 52 minutes, 20 seconds, this year’s fastest elapsed time in the 125-nautical mile race, Rich Roberts, the race’s spokesman, reported. Akela of Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Corona del Mar finished behind Magnitude 80 in 17:03.

NEWPORT, R.I. — Newport Harbor High products Charlie Buckingham and Carly Chamberlain helped lead Georgetown to its first-ever sailing national title at the Fleet Racing National Championships June 4. Georgetown, which started the final day in second place, rallied to win the title with 238 points, ahead of second-place Boston College (269). Buckingham, a Hoyas freshman skipper, and crew Alexandra Taylor led the B division with 55 points through the first two days of racing and finished with a B division-best 97 points over the 18-race event.

They were the "Titans of the South" for nearly a decade in the 1950s and '60s. I refer not to a Tennessee football team, but to Cookie, Skipper and Lucky. They ran our Costa Mesa neighborhood. That neighborhood consisted of the southern half of Fairway Drive, between Monte Vista and Del Mar avenues, on the east side of town. There were dogs on the northern half of the block to be sure, but Cookie, Skipper and Lucky owned the South. Cookie, a cocker spaniel mix, was a member of my family.

They were the "Titans of the South" for nearly a decade in the 1950s and '60s. I refer not to a Tennessee football team, but to Cookie, Skipper and Lucky. They ran our Costa Mesa neighborhood. That neighborhood consisted of the southern half of Fairway Drive, between Monte Vista and Del Mar avenues, on the east side of town. There were dogs on the northern half of the block to be sure, but Cookie, Skipper and Lucky owned the South. Cookie, a cocker spaniel mix, was a member of my family.

Ahoy! I cannot fathom that Labor Day weekend has closed in on my radar already. This weekend signals the end of summer across the nation, especially for boating. I do not understand why many school districts begin classes before Labor Day that steals that end of summer tradition for the students. This summer has been great for boating with mild temperatures, only a few hurricane swells reaching our waters and a moderate wind blowing in the afternoons for the rag boaters. However, the surf will build this weekend and boaters should be cautious venturing outside the harbor's line of demarcation.

A relative of one of four crew members killed in April's Newport-to-Ensenada race on Wednesday called preliminary findings that the sailboat ran aground premature. Anna Mavromati, daughter of Aegean skipper Theo Mavromatis, said U.S. Sailing - the sport's official governing body - relied too heavily on her father's sometimes inaccurate GPS device in reaching its conclusions that the 37-foot vessel struck North Coronado Island, about 15 miles south of San Diego Bay. "We know that device isn't entirely accurate," she said.

The Newport Harbor High School and Corona del Mar High School sailing teams continued their dominance in the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Assn. (PCISA) on Saturday and Sunday by taking second through fifth place at the PCISA All-Girls Invitational Regatta at the San Diego Yacht Club. Thirteen high school girl teams from the San Francisco Bay Area to the San Diego area competed in the regatta in the San Diego Bay and off Shelter Island. There were two days of racing with a total of 18 races combined with the A and B divisions.

CORONA DEL MAR - Skipper Dave Perry of Southport, Conn. won his fourth U.S. Match Racing Championship on a sunny, windy Sunday afternoon off Newport Beach. Perry, with crew Mark Rehe (Harper Woods, Mich.) and Chris Museler (Portsmouth, R.I.) defeated Taylor Canfield (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) in the finals Sunday, 2-0, to claim his fourth Prince of Wales Bowl. The four-day U.S. Sailing National Championship was hosted by the Balboa Yacht Club in Corona del Mar. Perry advanced to the finals after edging skipper Chris Nesbitt (San Diego)

This week I talked to Peter Paget, captain of the Terri L. Brusco. And, no pun intended, he gave me a boatload of information. The Terri L. Brusco is the tugboat you see in Newport Harbor, moving the barges from Newport to the Port of Long Beach and back. Capt. Paget has just completed a month of work and now must take a month off. He started his career some 30 years ago in Alaska, and has kept his hand on the helm ever since. "As a kid I sailed in Portland, Ore., and became fascinated with the tugs," Paget said.

While traveling around the harbor this week I came upon a place that gave me relief from my troubling situations. No, I am not referring to the Balboa Yacht Club's bar, but rather one particular Hunter 326 sailing in the harbor most every day of the week. I then came to lean about the Oasis Sailing Club (OSC). The OSC has been around for some 34 years and is a part of "Friends of the Oasis," which is a senior center owned and operated by the city of Newport Beach. If you do not know about the Newport Beach's Senior Center, Google "Friends of the Oasis.

Newport Harbor High’s sailing team won’t be moving from atop the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Assn. standings any time soon. That’s because the Sailors earned second place in the 25th annual Rose Bowl Regatta at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club Jan. 3. Newport Harbor was one of 41 high schools from all over California competing in the two-day regatta, with 54 teams sailing in the Gold and Silver Division. Newport Harbor’s varsity team, consisting of skipper Chris Segerblom with crew Nicole Grice, as well as skipper Randall Hause with crew Francesca Cappellini finished second among 27 teams in the Gold Division.

Newport Harbor High’s tie to its next baseball coach might involve the team it tied this past season in the Sunset League. The Sailors are close to hiring Patrick Murphy, an assistant last year at Los Alamitos, said a source Tuesday not wanting to be identified. The source said Newport Harbor has extended an offer to Murphy. The source added that Murphy is considering the job, but hopes he can also teach special education at Newport Harbor. The school offered Murphy, a credentialed special education teacher, an academic support position, said the source.

To see Stark Raving Mad finish first in every race and to listen to Pyewacket II’s people talk after the last race Sunday, it was difficult to guess which boat won the third biennial Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup. Robbie Haines, the Pyewacket II tactician, said, “Today everything went wrong on our boat.” But just enough went right for the 18-year-old Santa Cruz 70 to hold off its rivals — Ed McDowell’s defending champion Grand Illusion, also an SC 70 — by one point, and Jim Madden’s free-running three-year-old TP52 by three.