New hires and boats underway as Newport takes over mooring management

Newport Beach has a new harbormaster and nearly-complete fleet of patrol boats as it nears its takeover of mooring management in Newport Harbor.

Dennis Durgan, a Newport resident and real estate agent, is in place as the full-time harbormaster. In addition to his longtime residency, Durgan is an accomplished sailor with back-to-back Congressional Cup wins in 1979 and 1980, service as the tactician for Dennis Conner during the latter’s 1980 America’s Cup win, and a competitor in several Transpac and Bermuda races.

Durgan will be joined by about a half-dozen new part-time harbor services workers on the water.

He praised city staff while settling into his new job.

“Kudos to them,” he said. “They’re all so cordial and polite and efficient, and they’re a great support to me.”

The new harbor employees will patrol in a 19-inch Boston Whaler powerboat that the city already owned, now called Harbormaster 1, plus two 18-foot, twin-hulled rowing-coach vessels — Harbormaster 2 and Harbormaster 3 – being rented from the Newport Aquatic Center. Harbormaster 1 and 2 are ready to go, and the third is still being refurbished and should be finished shortly, said city Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller.

They will take over mooring administration on July 1, using city staff and contractors instead of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol for duties such as managing temporary mooring rentals, permit transfers, verification of boat owners’ maintenance and insurance obligations and emergency towing.

Civilians also will enforce city harbor code, which includes live-aboard regulations, time limits at piers and sea lion deterrence.

Moorings are essentially on-water parking lots for boats. Boat owners rent their spaces, with a city-issued permit allowing them that patch of water. Newport Beach maintains about 1,200 moorings, mostly offshore.

Visitor moorings will be in the H and J fields, close to the harbor services’ Marina Park offices, and will have large, easily identifiable buoys.

The city will keep impounded dinghies at the Balboa Yacht Basin, and larger vessels where they currently berth, in the C mooring field east of Bay Island and other points scattered around the harbor. City staff is also negotiating boat towing contracts, updating forms, and planning another round of outreach for mooring permit holders.

The management switch, initiated by the city in March, is intended to enhance customer service, officials say.

The Sheriff’s Department will still enforce boating laws and work to protect public safety on the water.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD