Supervisors Deep-Six Mooring for Pilgrim II

County supervisors decided Tuesday to leave the brigantine Pilgrim II at sea, denying $400,000 to build a permanent mooring for the replica of the square-rigger that carried Richard Henry Dana ashore 151 years ago.

The veto of funds was in line with the board’s tough stance on capital projects involving the county’s harbors, beaches and parks that resulted in a proposed $45.7-million, five-year budget slashed to $28 million.

The Orange County Marine Institute, which brought the Pilgrim II to Dana Point in 1981 and is now raising money to buy it, requested $400,000 for a permanent mooring for the 98-foot, 350-ton vessel.

Treat for Children

The ship is anchored in waters off Dana Point in front of the Marine Institute. The vessel is visited primarily by schoolchildren, who are brought to the ship on small boats to witness plays and dramatic readings from Dana’s story of 19th-Century life at sea, “Two Years Before the Mast.”

“We feel like it was a major setback,” the institute’s executive director, Stanley L. Cummings, said after the supervisors’ 4-1 vote. Institute officials said that if the ship could be moored at the shore, the number of visitors could be increased from the present 10,000 to 40,000 a year.

But Supervisor Harriett Wieder, who led the opposition to spending money for the mooring, said that county Harbors, Beaches and Park District funds traditionally finance projects “with regional recreational utility that offer a wide range of attractions and programs that can be enjoyed by a variety of county residents.”

The Pilgrim II does not meet that definition, but “if the project is viewed as an extraordinary educational experience, then perhaps the school districts utilizing the facility should provide financing,” Wieder suggested.

But a study done for the county last year said school districts were complaining that they did not have enough money for transportation to bring children to the ship as often as they would like, let alone enough to help pay for the mooring.

Nearly three dozen supporters of the Pilgrim II in the Hall of Administration meeting room in Santa Ana watched as Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes Dana Point, cast the only vote in favor of the funds.

Augmentation Funds

The reduction in the Harbor, Parks and Beach District’s capital budget was dictated by the supervisors’ order that the budget be based solely on funds from the portion of the property tax earmarked for the district. In the past, the district has received augmentation funds for various projects, including $876,000 since 1979 for the Marine Institute and Pilgrim II, according to Supervisor Bruce Nestande.

The denial of augmentation funds, which the supervisors said were needed for county projects such as flood control, fire protection and libraries, forced the cut in the Harbor, Parks and Beach District’s original $45.7-million spending blueprint to $28 million.

The district also drew up a list of “priority” projects for the five-year budget that included the County Courthouse Museum, $200,000; Los Coyotes Regional Park parking lot, $110,000; Hot Springs Canyon trail, $200,000, and purchase of the Modjeska residence in Modjeska Canyon, $1.5 million.

Times staff writer Gordon Grant contributed to this story.