Orange Coast College students use 92-foot yacht as floating classroom

Melissa Robison rappelled out of helicopters and set up telecommunications for infantrymen and engineers while serving in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

But as a student of Orange Coast College’s Professional Mariner Program, she learned how to use a very different craft: the college’s 92-foot yacht, Nordic Star.

When she’s on her personal boat, Robison, 41, of Long Beach, volunteers with the Coast Guard Auxiliary as a safety patrol member based at Long Beach Shoreline Marina. She’d like to break into marine surveys as a boat inspector and appraiser and eventually get her captain’s license.

Karen Prioleau, an on-the-water instructor for OCC’s School of Sailing & Seamanship, said she values having veterans like Robison in her class of 35 students because their military experience benefits the entire cohort. Likewise, Robison said she has learned a lot from Prioleau and Nordic Star captain Bob Armstrong.

“For me, to hear their stories in a safety class where they say, ‘I went out and this happened or that happened,’ you’re not going to be able to find that in a book,” Robison said. “I just find it extremely inspiring and I’m so grateful to be in a class that’s led by another female in a field that’s dominated by men.”

OCC students in the Professional Mariner Program have the unique opportunity to learn seamanship aboard Nordic Star, which is known among local boaters for its long history in Newport Harbor.

Students technically aren’t crew members on the yacht, but they can apply for jobs under Armstrong, who has skippered boats for 40 years. Costa Mesa residents Heather Jamison, 25, and Oscar Ussery, 29, are former students who now work as deckhands.

Individuals and organizations can charter Nordic Star for up to 50 guests. The cost depends on whether you’re looking for a sunset dinner in Newport Harbor or to anchor off Catalina Island for the weekend. The below-deck staterooms — designed by Diane Johnson, known for her interior design on the superyacht Invictus — include elegant bathrooms with chrome fixtures and marble countertops and floors.

Nordic Star, built in 1969, was owned by three local families. Its most recent owner, Lido Isle resident Jerry Barto, said he bought the yacht from the previous owner’s heirs after he learned about a prospective buyer’s plan to move the boat to Santa Monica. He strongly believes the floating institution needs to stay local.

“It’s part of Newport Harbor,” Barto said.

Barto donated Nordic Star to the OCC School of Sailing & Seamanship in 2011 so students could learn how to captain boats and ships. His four children sailed as students at Newport Harbor High School and attended Orange Coast College before advancing to universities.

“I really have a soft spot for OCC and the mariner program,” Barto said.

Recently, after Prioleau trained students on how to use Nordic Star’s fire hoses and rescue a mannequin simulating an unconscious person, Armstrong piloted the yacht to Barto’s waterfront home and blew the horn. Barto waved from his second-floor balcony to the OCC students lined up on the bow.

“What you’re doing right now, that’s what that ship is meant to do,” Barto shouted.

Student Meredith McCuskey hollered back, “We’re your biggest fans!”

DANIEL LANGHORNE is a contributor to Times Community News.