Emory Cove Boaters Lose Fight to Stay Put : Group Plans to Continue Battle to Bar Eviction From South Bay Spot

The Mud Ducks of Emory Cove lost a battle Friday in their campaign to remain in the quiet harbor in San Diego Bay. But they vowed to win the war.

A ruling by Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman dissolved the temporary restraining order that has prevented eviction of the motley cluster of boats anchored near the posh Coronado Cays residential marina along the Silver Strand. The judge also dismissed the boaters’ challenge of the constitutionality of the San Diego Unified Port District ordinance that ends the longstanding policy allowing boaters free anchorage in most areas of the bay.

The Emory Cove contingent--nearly 40 live-aboards and about 60 boats ranging from sleek to sinking--are now subject to immediate eviction by port authorities. C. Michael Cowett, the attorney representing the Port District, said the boat owners will be given “a sufficient time” to move their craft to the designated free anchorage area off National City, to a marina or to other legal anchorage.

Larry Croyle, who represents a group of the Emory Cove live-aboard families, said he will seek a stay of the eviction and file an appeal of Huffman’s ruling with the 4th District Court of Appeal.

The Emory Cove residents, who attended the Friday court hearing in force, took the defeat philosophically.

“We really didn’t expect a miracle,” one live-aboard said. “We sure don’t plan to give up because we have no place else to go.”

The boat residents were first ordered out of Emory Cove by March 16 after eviction notices were served by Harbor Patrol officers to the floating community. A few of the cove residents who moved their craft out to the newly designated free anchorage, a 200-acre water area offshore at the Sweetwater River mouth, were caught in the March 15 windstorm that sank one craft, swamped another and tore several others from their mid-bay moorings.

“It was calm as a bathtub” in Emory Cove, while the boats were being buffeted about in the new, unprotected bay anchorage, Gregory Clark recalled.

His 63-foot boat, nicknamed “The Hulk,” which he uses as a workshop for creating his metal sculptures, “almost sunk” in the mid-March blow and only a 24-hour watch kept the craft, and a smaller boat on which he lives, from foundering, he said.

Lawrence Graf, leader of the Fort Emory Cove Boatowners Assn., said that few in the group plan to move to the new anchorage designated by the Port District because “it just isn’t safe.”

“Some of us are going to try to get in a marina, but a lot of the boats don’t meet the standards,” boat owner Cliff Brush said. “There are some of the boats that just can’t be moved. They couldn’t take it.”

Coronado resident and boat owner Judith Collins said that, although the Emory Cove residents are hardest hit by the Port District’s new anchorage rules, all boaters and water-sports enthusiasts are being hurt by the new regulations.

“The Port District has effectively cut off one-third of the bay to recreational boating,” she said, explaining that no craft with a draft of more than 18 inches is permitted in the southern portion of the bay, none is allowed to anchor there for any amount of time except for daylight fishing, and all craft there must travel at 5 miles per hour or less.

The restrictions rule out sailboats, water-skiing, jet skis and most other water sports, Collins said.

“I would think that marina owners and other bayfront commercial owners would be furious with the new rules,” she said. “It is affecting their business.”

At a meeting Friday night at the Coronado Yacht Club, Collins and other boat owners met to form a San Diego Bay Users Group. The organization will raise money to mount a legal fight against the Port District regulations, Collins said. Graf said the Emory Cove contingent will need a lot of help from other boaters because the live-aboards intend to challenge the Port District’s right to police Emory Cove.

“It’s federal property, Navy property,” Graf said of Emory Cove. “It was a seaplane-refueling station.”

The Port District has authority over state-owned tidelands, not federal property, Graf contended, and Emory Cove is federal property.